2024-01-24 16:19:21
Measles is on the rise again in Europe. The main reason for this is insufficient immunization during the corona pandemic. As the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Tuesday, there were more than 42,200 cases of the extremely contagious infectious disease in 41 member states in the WHO European Region last year. In 2022 there were only 941 illnesses in total. Most cases (13,677) were reported from Kazakhstan in 2023, followed by Russia (10,710), Kyrgyzstan (5,452), Turkey (4,584) and Azerbaijan (3,316). The EU country Romania comes in sixth place with 1,714 cases. The United Kingdom is also struggling with a massive outbreak (183 cases).
In Kazakhstan, children under the age of five are particularly affected because they were not routinely vaccinated against measles during Corona. “There are currently 2,167 children in hospitals with measles, 27 of them are seriously ill,” said Health Minister Azhar Giniyat, according to the WHO. She urges all parents to have their children vaccinated against measles. A campaign is currently underway for this purpose. According to the Kazakh Ministry of Health, around 1.14 million people have been immunized in the former Soviet republic from November 2023 to January 10th. Only a preventive vaccination helps against the so-called childhood illness. The measles virus can lead to serious complications such as encephalitis and can lead to a very rare but fatal long-term consequence – subacute sclerosing panencephalitis – even after several years.
Authorities in England are also worried
Authorities in England are also concerned about an outbreak of the disease among children in the West Midlands. This could spread quickly throughout the country and also in larger cities, as more than 3.4 million children and young people under the age of 16 are not or insufficiently immunized against measles. That’s why millions of parents are currently being contacted with an urgent request to have their children vaccinated, the national health authority NHS England announced on Wednesday.
Infants are particularly at risk, even if they have nest protection via their mothers in the first few months. The combination vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella can only be given to children from the age of eleven months. A second dose then follows after a good two years. According to the WHO, the rate of those vaccinated once against measles in Europe has fallen from 96 percent in 2019 to 93 percent in 2022. 91 percent have had a second vaccination and thus complete immunization – in 2019 it was 92 percent of Europeans. This means that a good 1.8 million children in Europe missed at least one vaccination during the corona pandemic.
The majority of measles affected children between the ages of one and four. According to the WHO, only one in five cases affected an adult. Almost 21,000 people in Europe had to be treated in hospital for measles between January and October 2023. A total of five patients died from the viral disease in two countries.
-
Published/Updated:
There were also significantly more cases of measles in Germany last year than in the previous year. This is shown by the first figures from the State Office for Health and Social Affairs in Berlin. Accordingly, 15 illnesses were reported in the capital, more than in the Corona pandemic period combined. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), there were only two cases of measles in Berlin in 2022, and no cases were registered in 2021. There were three cases in 2020. The main reason for these low values was the protective measures taken around the world to prevent the spread of corona. In addition, vaccination against measles has been mandatory in Germany since March 2020, which applies to daycare centers and schools. Just nine years ago there was a major measles outbreak in Berlin with 1,240 people suffering, and one toddler died at the time.
#times #cases #measles #Europe