The World Health Organization (WHO) says there has been a “dramatic resurgence” of measles in Europe. Nearly 90,000 people had been sickened by the virus in the first half of 2019. The return of the serious illness is due in part to vaccine refusals, says WHO.
The U.N. health agency says the number of measles cases from January to June this year is double the number reported for the same period in 2018. Measles is among the world’s most infectious diseases. It is spread mostly by coughing, sneezing, and close personal contact. But the virus can live outside s human host for several hours—giving it time to transfer to a new person who touches an object or surface that a sick person breathed on. An unvaccinated person who comes in contact with an infected person has a 90% chance of contracting measles.
Measles is preventable with two doses of a vaccine, but there is no effective treatment once a person is infected. While the body fights the virus, the patient suffers high fever, coughing and respiratory issues, diarrhea, and a spotty red body rash. About 20% of those with the disease must be hospitalized. About 5% contract pneumonia. Measles can also cause brain swelling. It is particularly harmful for children age five and under, adults over age 20, and all pregnant women. Pneumonia is the most common cause of death from measles.
Numerous European countries have introduced stronger vaccination policies. But pockets of people continue to refuse the measles vaccine. Germany has documented more than 400 cases of measles this year. Last month, the German government proposed making measles immunization mandatory for children and employees at schools.
With more than 84,000 cases, Ukraine accounted for the vast majority of measles in Europe. In June, the Centers for Disease Control reported that 15 people in Ukraine had died of measles. Four countries—Albania, the Czech Republic, Greece, and the United Kingdom—had eliminated measles inside their borders. That is no longer the case.
“If high immunization coverage is not achieved and sustained in every community, both children and adults will suffer unnecessarily and some will tragically die,” says Dr. Guenter Pfaff, chair of the WHO committee on measles in Europe.
In some developed countries, measles vaccination rates dropped following the publication of a flawed study in the late 1990s. That study suggested a link between the combined measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and autism. Health officials have struggled to debunk fears about the vaccine’s safety ever since.
“Misinformation about vaccines is as contagious and dangerous as the diseases it helps to spread,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement this week.
In 2017, WHO estimated about 110,000 people died from measles worldwide. Most were children under five years old.
(A vial of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine at a health clinic in Vashon Island, Washington. The World Health Organization reports that vaccine refusal is part of the cause of a measles outbreak in Europe this year, with nearly 90,000 people sickened by the virus in the first half of 2019. AP Photo)