Index – Abroad – A dangerous pandemic may be on the horizon, the number of cases has almost doubled

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of measles cases in 2024 will be at least similar to last year. Some countries could lose their “elimination status” when it is reviewed in September, warned Patrick O’Connor of WHO’s ESCMID – European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (in Hungarian) at the global congress of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectology in Barcelona on Saturday.

O’Connor said that “the measles virus is highly contagious, and gaps in immunization coverage pose a potential risk for outbreaks.”

The coverage must therefore be high, but at the same time uniform and fair. Large outbreaks and continued spread of measles are always a cause for concern, and achieving and maintaining measles eradication can be challenging.

– added the specialist According to Sky News. He said the measles vaccine prevented an estimated 57 million deaths between 2000 and 2022.

Measles vaccination was introduced in the UK in 1968 and until recently the disease was almost completely eradicated due to its widespread use. However, vaccination rates have decreased. The UK was declared measles-free by the WHO in 2017, but this status was withdrawn in 2019 after a spike in cases. Measures to stop the spread of Covid also interrupted the spread of measles and the UK regained measles elimination status in 2021.

But England now faces a measles emergency, with almost 900 cases recorded this year – a sharp rise from 368 in 2023. Health workers say the current outbreak, which started in the West Midlands last year, has now spread to all regions of the country.

The main symptoms of measles are high fever, sore and red, watery eyes, coughing, sneezing, and a rash that usually appears after the initial symptoms. The majority of measles cases occurred in low- and lower-middle-income countries. In the world, it occurred at the highest rate in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Yemen.

The number of countries affected by large or disruptive measles epidemics – where 20 cases per million people are reported continuously for 12 months – has increased from 17 to 51, i.e. it has tripled.

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