Europe is experiencing an outbreak of measles cases and this disease resurfaced in four countries, including the United Kingdom, where it was considered eliminated, worries Thursday the World Health Organization (WHO), calling for intensification the vaccination.
Nearly 90,000 cases in Europe
The WHO reports 89,994 cases of measles in 48 European countries in the first half of 2019, more than double the same period last year (44,175) and already more than for the whole of 2018 (84,462). "The resumption of measles transmission is a worrying problem: if we fail to establish and maintain high immunization coverage in each community, children and adults will suffer unnecessary suffering, and some will be doomed to tragic death, "warned Günter Pfaff, the chairman of the Regional Committee for the Verification of the Elimination of Measles and Rubella.
On the basis of the 2018 figures, the disease is no longer considered "eliminated" in the United Kingdom, Greece, the Czech Republic and Albania. For WHO, the status of "elimination" is the absence of continuous transmission for 12 months in a particular geographical area.
In the United Kingdom, 953 cases have been reported in 2018 - 489 since 1 January 2019 - while 2,193 have been reported in Greece (28), 1,466 in Albania (475) and 217 in the Czech Republic (569). "Each of these countries is an example of extremely high national immunization coverage, so these are not examples of countries with particularly weak (health) systems," said Kate O'Brien, the department's director. Vaccination at WHO. "I think this is a wake-up call for the world: it is not enough to achieve high national coverage, it must be done in every community and every family," she added.
No curative treatment
Extremely contagious and can lead to serious complications, sometimes fatal - 37 cases in Europe in the first half and 74 in 2018 - measles is usually transmitted by direct contact or air, infecting the respiratory tract, then spreading throughout the world. 'organization. In Europe, the majority of those affected are under 19 (60% of cases).
In the first half of 2019, 78% of cases were recorded in four contagion outbreaks: Kazakhstan, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine, which alone accounts for 60% of cases. Measles is reported to be eliminated in 35 of the 53 countries in the region. They were 37 in 2017. It is endemic in 12 countries, including France and Germany, where vaccination will become mandatory from March 2020. Good students, Austria and Switzerland achieve the status of "elimination" "after" demonstrating interruption of continuous transmission for at least 36 months ".
There is no cure for measles, but it can be avoided by two doses of a vaccine, according to WHO, which estimates that more than 20 million deaths are prevented worldwide between 2000 and 2016 thanks to to vaccination.
6.7 million deaths a year
Globally, the number of reported cases has tripled between the period from 1 January to 31 July 2018 (129.239) and the first seven months of this year (364.808). The most numerous cases were registered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar and Ukraine. The United States has reported the highest number of measles cases in 25 years.
The WHO estimates that less than one in ten cases is reported worldwide, which means that the scale of the epidemic is far greater than official statistics. The UN specialized agency estimates that in fact there are about 6.7 million deaths each year related to measles, said Kate O'Brien.
This disease is resurging around the world because of poor access to care or mistrust of vaccines. Until 2016, however, it was down. In Western countries, "anti-vax" claims that there is a link between the measles vaccine and autism. More than once, WHO has denied this theory, based on a falsified study.