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Measles cases have exploded by almost 80% worldwide in the first two months of the year, according to the World Health Organization and Unicef. The explanations of François Vié Le Sage, pediatrician and head of the Infovac vaccinology expert group within the French Association of Outpatient Pediatrics (Afpa).
More than 17,000 measles cases were reported in January and February, compared to around ten thousand a year earlier. And these are just the recorded cases. This increase is explained in particular by a drop in vaccination, disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, 23 million children could not be vaccinated.
Faced with this extremely contagious disease, the World Health Organization fears an “absolute catastrophe” if the situation continues, with potentially millions of children affected by the end of the year.
Measles killed more than 200,000 people in 2019, the vast majority children under five. It is therefore essential for the WHO to get vaccination campaigns back on track, especially in the regions most affected by the disease. These are essentially five countries: Somalia, Yemen, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Ethiopia.