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April 25 (UPI) – While measles cases in the United States reach the highest number in two decades, advocates said Thursday that nearly 170 million children in the world have not been vaccinated since much of of the decade.
A day after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced 695 cases in 22 states this year, the UN agency for child protection said the non-vaccination of children was a growing problem around the world.
According to a UNICEF report, one of the main reasons for the resurgence of the disease is the "anti-vax" movement, led by parents tired of the vaccine who refuse to inoculate their children. More than 21 million children, he added, missed the first dose of measles vaccine between 2010 and 2017.
"The ground for measles outbreaks that we have witnessed today has been laid," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. "The measles virus will always find unvaccinated children, and if we really want to prevent the spread of this dangerous but preventable disease, we need to vaccinate all children, in rich and poor countries alike."
In the United States, nearly 700 cases were recorded this year, the highest number since the announcement of its elimination in 2000. The previous record was 694 in 2014. Federal health officials attributed this number is growing in a few important foci, notably in New York and Washington. .
"The longer these outbreaks last, the greater the chance for measles to implant in the US in a sustainable way," the CDC said in an update on Wednesday.
Officials said the outbreaks this year began when unvaccinated travelers traveled to foreign countries and returned with the disease, risking infection in their communities. Health and Social Services Secretary Alex Azar said measles was not a safe childhood disease and was "preventable".
"We have the capacity to safely protect our children and our communities," he said. "Measles vaccines are among the most studied medical products and their safety has been firmly established over the years in some of the largest vaccine studies ever undertaken."
The World Health Organization announced this month that the number of measles cases in the world had increased by 300% in the first three months of 2019. The agency also attributed part of the blame the trend "anti-vax", calling "hesitation to vaccination" one of the 10 threats to global health this year.
Azar said the Ministry of Health and Social Services will launch a campaign next week, as part of National Infant Immunization Week, to raise public awareness of vaccine safety.
"All Americans would be safer and healthier if we received measles vaccines within the recommended time frame," he said.
The CDC will update its measles figures on Monday.
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