The World Health Organization noted on Thursday that vaccinations are crucial to halting the spread of the disease, with the number of cases of measles in Europe reaching a 25-year high in 2024.
In the WHO’s European region, which includes 53 nations and includes central Asia, 127, 350 measles cases, and 38 deaths were reported last year.
The most affected nations, Romania and Kazakhstan, reported 30, 692 and 28, 147 cases, respectively.
According to the WHO, 40% of cases involved children under the age of five and required hospitalization in half of Europe.
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“Measles is back, and it’s a wake-up call. Without high vaccination rates, “there is no health security,” according to WHO Europe director Hans Kluge.
He urged authorities to increase their efforts to protect under- and unvaccinated communities.
500, 000 children in the area received their first dose of the vaccine in 2023.
There is no health security without high vaccination rates, according to Kluge.
Measles spreads through respiratory droplets, which can last up to two hours in the air after an infected person leaves an area.
A rash, fever, and other respiratory symptoms can be brought on by the illness, but severe complications, such as pneumonia, brain inflammation, and death can also result.
In 2024, Europe was the source of a third of the measles cases worldwide.
Measles has sharply decreased in Europe after reporting 216, 000 cases in 1997, dropping to 4, 440 cases in 2016.
After the Covid-19 pandemic caused a backsliding of vaccinations, the illness rebounded in 2018 and 2019 and has since grown exponentially since 2023.
Source: Channels TV
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