During the first two months of 2019, more than 34,000 Europeans were infected with measles, while most of them were from Ukraine.
According to a new report, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned vulnerable people to get vaccinated, especially if they are planning to travel. Health officials expect the measles outbreaks to spread if there is no timely and comprehensive response.
In Ukraine, measles diagnoses have reached over 25,000 so far. The disease has killed 13 people in Romania and Albania. Measles outbreaks have also been found in the United States, Thailand, and the Philippines.
“Every opportunity should be used to vaccinate susceptible children, adolescents and adults,” said WHO health officials, who noted that most measles cases have been seen in unvaccinated people, especially children.
The European region was found to reach its highest-ever measles vaccination rate at 90 percent in 2017. However, health officials agree that herd immunity, which means sufficient disease resistance in a community, for the measles should be around 95 percent to declare the elimination of the virus.
Some countries have lagged in immunization among vulnerable groups over the past three years.
According to last month’s report by the United Nations, over 20 million children missed their measles vaccine every year for the last eight years.
In severe cases, measles can cause medical complications and even death. It has no cure, but can be prevented with two shots of the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine. “The impact on public health will persist until the ongoing outbreaks are controlled,” the report read, pushing local authorities to “identify who has been missed in the past and reach them with the vaccines they need” as soon as possible.
