With a “national incident” over measles in the UK, what’s the situation in Europe?
Europe is experiencing an “alarming rise” in measles cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday, with a more than 30-fold rise across the region in 2023.
More than 30,000 measles cases were reported by 40 of the WHO European region’s 53 member states between January and October last year, compared to 941 cases in 2022.
The increase in the number of cases is compounded by the hospitalisation of 21,000 people and five measles-related deaths.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The virus practically disappeared in Europe during the COVID-19 lockdowns, but “the overall number of measles cases in the EU/EEA has been steadily increasing since June 2023,” the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in its latest weekly threats report.
Last December, the country’s health ministry declared a national measles epidemic following a worrying rise in cases and a high number of hospitalisations among infected children.
Since the announcement, four unvaccinated people - three babies and one adult - died due to measles, according to local media and the National Institute of Public Health.
The UK’s health authorities warned last Friday that the surge in the West Midlands could spread to other towns and cities unless urgent action is taken to boost vaccination uptake.
“With vaccine uptake in some communities so low, there is now a very real risk of seeing the virus spread in other towns and cities,” said Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UKHSA.
Measles is a highly contagious viral illness that spreads easily when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes, according to the WHO, and “can cause severe disease, complications, and even death”.
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