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The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that last year, more than 20 percent of the estimated 10.3 million cases of measles were reported. About 107,500 people, mostly young children, died – “unacceptable” deaths from a vaccine-preventable disease, the health groups said.
The increase in cases is due to falling vaccination rates. Measles can be deadly and debilitating, but it can be prevented with two doses of the highly effective measles vaccine. One dose is 93% effective in measles and two doses are 97% effective.
The virus has been completely eradicated from 82 countries in the past 50 years, but a lack of vaccine availability and misinformation about vaccine safety have held the world back. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of people receiving standardized vaccines has been declining worldwide.
Measles is so contagious that 95% of the population must be fully vaccinated to provide some protection to the unvaccinated, including children too young to be vaccinated.
Globally, 83 percent of children will receive the first measles vaccine by 2023, and only 74 percent will receive the recommended second dose, the health organizations said. In total, there were more than 22 million children who missed vaccinations.
In the US, declining measles vaccination rates among kindergarteners mean coverage has been below federal targets for four years in a row. Measles vaccination rates last year dropped to 92.7% kindergarten coverage by the 2023-24 school year. According to CDC data It was released in October. In the year As of November 7, a total of 266 cases of measles have been reported in the US alone in 2024, with 16 outbreaks. According to the CDC.
Too many gaps in global vaccination coverage will increase the number of significant measles outbreaks by 60% by 2023. 57 countries saw a major or disruptive measles outbreak last year, up from 36 in 2022. Each region. About half of the outbreaks were in Africa.
In the year By 2023, measles deaths will drop by 8% from last year. Not because the virus is deadly, but because the epidemic has occurred in parts of the world where children have access to better health care and proper nutrition. Studies show Children whose immune systems are weak due to starvation or other diseases are more susceptible to the disease. According to the CDC, up to 3 in 1,000 children who contract measles may die from respiratory and neurological complications.
Common symptoms include fever, cough, runny eyes, and a red rash, but measles leaves people with lifelong health problems, especially infants and children. Measles can also cause blindness, brain damage, and pneumonia. About 1 in 20 children will get measles pneumonia, according to the CDC.
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“The measles vaccine has saved more lives than any other vaccine in the past 50 years,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Theodore Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “To save more lives and stop this deadly virus from affecting the most vulnerable, we need to vaccinate everyone, wherever they are.”
CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen told 's Meg Tirell on Wednesday that she doesn't want to see the world go back just to remind people that vaccines work.
“I think we have a very short memory of what it's like to hold a child paralyzed by polio or comfort a mother who lost her child to measles,” Cohen said at the Milken Institute's Future of Health Summit. “We have to remember that the reason we have these childhood vaccines is to make sure we're the strongest and healthiest we can be as a society.”
's Meg Tirrell and Deidre McPhillips contributed to this report