MEASLES deaths globally spiked by more than 40 percent last year and cases rose after vaccination levels dramatically dropped during the pandemic, leading health agencies said Thursday.
The highly infectious disease triggered epidemics in 37 countries last year, versus 22 countries in 2021. It sickened nine million children and killed 136,000, mostly in poorer countries, the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a new report.
The number of measles cases also rose by nearly 20 percent after immunization levels dropped to their lowest in 15 years during the pandemic, the agencies said.
“The increase in measles outbreaks and deaths is staggering, but unfortunately, not unexpected given the declining vaccination rates we’ve seen in the past few years,” said CDC’s John Vertefeuille, said in a statement.
Two doses of the measles vaccine are highly protective against the disease. Children in developing countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and India are at highest risk. WHO and CDC said that immunization rates in poorer countries are about 66 percent, “a rate that shows no recovery at all from the backsliding during the pandemic.”
Measles is among the most infectious diseases known and spreads in the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. It is most common in children under 5. Symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose and a distinctive rash.
Most deaths are due to complications like encephalitis, severe dehydration, serious breathing problems and pneumonia. Complications are most likely in young children and adults over 30.