#disease #gaining #ground #world
“We are witnessing an alarming increase in measles cases in the European region.” The message was published on Tuesday January 23 by the director of the Europe office of the World Health Organization (WHO), which extends to Central Asia.
According to figures given by Hans Kluge, the number of cases reported in 2023 has exploded compared to 2022: 42,200 cases compared to 941, an increase by more than 40! “I reiterate my call for urgent action to compensate for immune deficiencies through vaccination,” continues Hans Kluge.
Young children particularly affected
Among the contaminations, 2 cases in 5 concerned children aged 1 to 4 years and 1 case in 5 those over 20 years old. Between January and October 2023, “we observed in the Region not only a 30-fold increase in cases of measles (between January and October 2023, editor’s note), but also nearly 21,000 hospitalizations and 5 deaths linked to this disease. This is worrying,” Hans Kluge said in a statement.
Worrying because although measles generally heals within ten days, complications, sometimes serious, occur in 30% of cases and can lead to death. Measles is an infectious disease, very contagious (one person can infect 15 to 20 people).
A global increase
Kazakhstan is the most affected country in the Europe zone but closer to us, in the United Kingdom, Romania, Austria, Germany… the trend is also on the rise.
“The total number of measles cases in the EU/EEA has been increasing steadily since June 2023,” said the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in its latest weekly threat report, relayed by Euronews.
In France, we do not yet have the figures for the year 2023. However, according to Public Health France, “among the suspected cases of measles occurring between January 1 and December 31, 2022, 15 cases of measles were confirmed, including 5 imported, compared to respectively 16, 240 and 2,636 cases in 2021, 2020 and 2019.”
As for many countries, this decline is attributable to Covid-19 and almost non-existent viral circulation in 2021 which continued in 2022.
But as elsewhere, the figures should rise again in 2023. As a reminder, an epidemic broke out in September 2023 in a college in Ardèche, with 64 cases declared as of November 8, i.e. more cases than for the whole year 2022.
Globally, according to figures for 2022 published by the WHO and the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 9 million cases of measles and 136,000 deaths have been recorded, mainly children.
Vaccination declines
If barrier gestures can prevent the spread of measles, the vaccine remains the most effective way to protect yourself and others.
“This increase in epidemic outbreaks and deaths due to measles is very impressive, but it is, unfortunately, not surprising given the decline in vaccination rates observed in recent years,” summarized in a press release of WHO John Vertefeuille, director of the CDC’s global immunization division.
“Reported national coverage with the first dose of measles-containing vaccine in the Region (Europe) increased from 96% in 2019 to 93% in 2022, and coverage with the second dose decreased from 92% in 2019 to 91% in 2022. In total, more than 1.8 million infants in the Region were not vaccinated against measles between 2020 and 2022,” notes the WHO in a press release.
Worldwide, in 2022, “the global first dose vaccination coverage rate, at 83%, was still well below the 95% coverage level needed to protect communities against epidemics.” This is the lowest rate recorded since 2008.
