LONDON - Measles infected nearly 10 million
people in 2018 and killed 140 000, mostly children, as
devastating outbreaks of the viral disease hit every region of
the world, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.
In figures described by its director general as "an
outrage", the WHO said most of last year's measles deaths were
in children under five years old who had not been vaccinated.
"The fact that any child dies from a vaccine-preventable
disease like measles is frankly an outrage and a collective
failure to protect the world's most vulnerable children," said
the WHO's director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus.
The picture for 2019 is even worse, the WHO said, with
provisional data up to November showing a three-fold increase
compared with the same period in 2018.
The United States has already reported its highest number of
measles cases in 25 years in 2019, while four countries in
Europe - Albania, the Czech Republic, Greece and Britain – lost
their WHO "measles-free" status in 2018 after suffering large
outbreaks.
An ongoing outbreak of measles in South Pacific nation of
Samoa has infected more than 4200 people and killed more than
60, mostly babies and children, in a battle complicated by a
vocal anti-vaccination movement.
Globally, measles vaccination rates have stagnated for
almost a decade, the WHO said. It and the UNICEF children's fund
say that in 2018, around 86% of children got a first dose of
measles vaccine through their country's routine vaccination
services, and fewer than 70% got the second dose recommended to
fully protect them from measles infection.
Highly contagious
Measles is one of the most contagious known diseases - more
so than Ebola, tuberculosis or flu. It can linger in the air or
on surfaces for several hours after an infected person has been
and gone - putting anyone not vaccinated at risk.
In some wealthier nations, vaccination rates have been hit
by some parents shunning them for what they say are religious or
philosophical reasons. Mistrust of authority and debunked myths
about links to autism also weaken vaccine confidence and lead
some parents to delay protecting their children.
Research published in October showed that measles infection
not only carries a risk of death or severe complications
including pneumonia, brain damage, blindness and deafness, but
can also damage the victim's immune memory for months or years -
leaving those who survive measles vulnerable to other dangerous
diseases such as flu or severe diarrhoea.
The WHO data showed there were an estimated 9 769 400 cases
of measles and 142 300 related deaths globally in 2018. This
compares to 7 585 900 cases and 124 000 deaths in 2017.
In 2018, measles hit hardest in Liberia, Democratic Republic
of Congo, Madagascar, Somalia and Ukraine, the WHO said, with
these five nations accounting for nearly half of global cases.
Robert Linkins, a specialist at the US Centres for Disease
Control and Prevention, said the data were worrying: "Without
improving measles vaccine coverage we're going to continue to
see these needless deaths. We must turn this trend around."