United States: Research says the number of measles cases in the world has nearly doubled from 2022 to 2023, which, as per the researchers, is becoming a stumbling block for countries’ efforts toward the ultimate elimination of measles cases.
More about the case
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported 220,714 cases globally in the year 2022 per the reports of Dr. Patrick O’Connor from the WHO during the session of the ESCMID Global Congress on Saturday, 2nd, in Barcelona.
The tentative date for the year 2023 is 321,582 cases, and for 2024 to date, with more than 94,000 recorded, the figure must certainly be higher, and this is the expectation.
According to the latest global reports, nearly half of them have been documented by the European Region of WHO, with the highest number of contagious cases in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, and Yemen.
The US has received 128 measles cases reported from 20 districts, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for the whole year up to this Friday. This is the largest number cases reported since 2019.
The CDC stated that measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, “meaning there is no measles spreading within the country and new cases are only found when someone contracts measles abroad and returns,” as CNN Health reported.
The agency added further that the rising cases this year have been posing a threat to the elimination status of the country.
More about the measles
Measles, as per the experts, is a highly communicable infectious disease, posing a threat through airborne media. Therefore, it is responsible for causing various serious health illnesses or even death, especially among the vulnerable group, which mainly includes young and unvaccinated children.
According to the CDC reports, the common symptoms of the disease involve fever, cough, runny nose, watery eyes, and a rash of red spots.
Moreover, the report also suggests that over 1 in 5 of the unvaccinated in the US after getting measles would be hospitalized. Moreover, around 1 in 20 children who catch measles would develop pneumonia, as well as other fatal diseases related to the swelling of the brain, called encephalitis.
About 3 in every 1,000 children who get an infection of measles would lose his or her life from respiratory and neurologic-related complications.
Moreover, it also leads to “immune amnesia,” which is a condition that causes people to have a risk of contracting other infections for weeks or even years.
About the measles vaccination
According to O’Connor, as stated on Saturday, measles vaccination has been helpful in avoiding around 57 million deaths between 2000 and 2022.
The CDC reports that in the United States, children receive their first dose of vaccination between 2 and 15 months of age, which protects the children from measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR).
The second dose of the vaccine is given when the children reach the age between 4 and 6 years.
The effectiveness of the vaccine can be seen from the results that after the first dose, about 93 percent of effectiveness is delivered to the individual, whereas the second dose boosts its effectiveness to 97 percent.
According to O’Connor, Measles is “a crisis among many crises,” where more than 45 percent of such disease outbreaks are noticed in conflict-affected and fragile countries, as CNN Health reported.
He added, “Over the last 20 years, there has been significant progress toward achieving measles and rubella elimination,” and, “In order to solidify and maintain those gains, we need to ensure high, uniform, and equitable routine immunization coverage and robust outreach and rapid outbreak response.”