The World Health Organization has issued an urgent warning over measles after an “alarming” 30-fold rise in cases across Europe. More than 30,000 cases were reported between January and October last year, compared with 941 cases in the whole of 2022 – a more than 30-fold increase.
Two in five cases were in children aged one to four, and one in five were in people aged 20 and over. The UN agency said the trend is expected to worsen if people do not vaccinate their children against the disease.
Dr Hans Kluge, the WHO regional director for Europe, said: “We have seen in the region not only a 30-fold increase in measles cases, but also nearly 21,000 hospitalisations and five measles-related deaths. Vaccination is the only way to protect children from this potentially dangerous disease. Urgent vaccination efforts are needed to halt transmission and prevent further spread.”
The warning came just days after the UK declared a national incident amid a surge in cases, and launched a campaign to encourage parents to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine for their children. Figures from the UK Health Security Agency showed 216 confirmed measles cases and 103 probable cases in the West Midlands since 1 October.
The WHO said falling vaccination rates were to blame, but also that more people were travelling abroad after Covid-19, increasing the risk of cross-border transmission. Across Europe, vaccination rates for the first dose of the MMR vaccine slipped from 96% in 2019 to 93% in 2022, with uptake of the second dose falling from 92% to 91%. About 1.8 million infants in the region were not vaccinated against measles between 2020 and 2022.
Russia and Kazakhstan fared the worst, with 10,000 cases each, while in western Europe, Britain had the most cases, with 183. Prof Dame Jenny Harries, head of the UKHSA, warned that the UK was on a “trajectory for everything getting much worse” and said “concerted action” was needed to tackle the virus.
