Measles cases rose 20% last year due to a lack of vaccine coverage in the world’s poorest countries and conflict-ridden countries, the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Thursday.

He said nearly half of all large and disruptive outbreaks occurred in the African region where the number of deaths increased by 37%.

“At this moment, every single country in the world has access to measles vaccine, so there is no reason why any child should be infected with this disease and no child should die from measles,” said WHO’s Natasha Crowcroft, measles vaccine. But a senior technical adviser and rubella told reporters.

Measles is caused by an airborne virus that mostly affects children under five years of age, but can be prevented with two doses of measles vaccine. However, vaccination coverage globally was “inadequate”, WHO and CDC said.

A report by both agencies showed that about 10.3 million cases of the highly contagious infection were expected in 2023, compared to 8.65 million last year.

unacceptable death toll

Deaths linked to the disease fell 8% to 1,07,500 due to better access to health services and vaccines in high-income countries like Europe, where cases had surged last year.

The agencies said that despite the decline, the death toll remains “unacceptable”.
WHO’s Crowcroft said the “biggest and most significant reason” for the rise in cases is the failure of the system to get vaccines to children. However, vaccine hesitancy has also played a role.

The report said that apart from the African region, a significant increase in cases has been recorded in the Eastern Mediterranean, European, Southeast Asian and Western Pacific regions.