Measles vaccination rates worldwide have still not recovered to pre-Covid-19 levels, a fact that has contributed to a 20% increase in measles cases in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to a new report from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Thursday.
The pandemic’s decline is hampering efforts to eradicate measles worldwide and is exposing children – generally those under the age of five – to a health threat that can be fatal in some cases or have lifelong consequences such as deafness in others cause.
“We are talking about many children dying every year from measles from a disease that is completely preventable,” Natasha Crowcroft, WHO senior technical adviser on measles and rubella, said at a news conference to discuss the report. published in the CDCs online diary Weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report.
In 2023, 10.3 million measles cases were reported worldwide, with increases in most parts of the world. Only two WHO regions – the Americas and the Eastern Mediterranean – reported a decline in cases in 2023.
Despite the double-digit increase in cases, 107,500 deaths from measles were reported, an 8% decrease from 2022. That is likely due to the geographic distribution of cases, said Christine Dubray, head of the measles elimination team at the CDC. Children living in low-income countries or conflict areas where malnutrition and/or lack of access to health care may be a problem are at greater risk of dying from measles infections.
Children who are sick with the highly contagious disease develop a high fever and itchy rash. Most people who get measles will be miserable, but will recover. But one in five people in the U.S. who contract measles will be hospitalized because of the disease. In younger children, approximately one in twenty develops pneumonia. In about one in a thousand cases, measles will lead to encephalitis – swelling of the brain. This can result in permanent changes in personality and intellectual development.
The measles vaccine is highly effective but requires two doses for maximum impact. In 2023, an estimated 83% of eligible children worldwide received their first dose of measles vaccine, but only 74% received their second dose. Those rates are too low to prevent measles from circulating. Crowcroft said more than 22 million children who should have been vaccinated last year did not receive a single dose of the vaccine.
All six WHO health regions have committed to eliminating measles transmission. Currently, only the Region of the Americas has measles-free status, Crowcroft said. Despite these long-standing commitments, keeping the political focus on stopping the spread of measles is a growing problem, she said.
It takes “a huge global effort to reach every child,” Crowcroft said. “And in the current economic context it is becoming increasingly difficult to get this started. It is becoming increasingly difficult for countries to make progress.”