Measles Top of the Agenda Again

The spread of the measles virus has yet again gained crucial importance, as, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), cases of the disease have been observed in a number of countries across the world. The 2018 data demonstrates that four European countries – the UK, Albania, Greece and the Czech Republic have lost their ‘measles elimination’ status. The USA is also under the risk of losing this status.

Kate O’Brien, Director of the WHO’s Immunization Department said: “This is an alarm bell that is ringing around the world: being able to achieve high national coverage is not enough, it has to be achieved in every community, and in every family for every child."

The WHO defines measles elimination as “the absence of endemic measles virus transmission in a region or other defined geographic area for more than 12 months, in the presence of a high quality surveillance system that meets targets of key performance indicators.”

The WHO statistics show that 365,000 cases of measles have been observed this year around the globe so far, which is triple the number seen in 2018.

By Ketevan Kvaratskheliya