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.
The latter. This has been actively studied extensively over the past three years. There are minor potential risks from the vaccine (and from any vaccine, since the point is to cause an immune response), but I’d rather take my chances with side effects of my immune system reacting to a pretend infection than having to deal with the real one.
Even for 16yo? They’re told not to get a booster here in Australia as too young.
FWIW I’ve done 7, chasing the XBB but apparently they won’t give it to me here as I’m too young… 🤷🏻♀️
16 year olds can still have major negative long-covid complications from being infected.
The whole “you don’t need it, you’re young” thing was just because they didn’t have enough shots for everyone.