{"id":20806,"date":"2023-11-17T11:54:13","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T18:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/?p=20806"},"modified":"2023-11-17T11:54:13","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T18:54:13","slug":"global-measles-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/global-measles-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Global measles threat grows with millions of unvaccinated children"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Global
After years of declining vaccination coverage, the global threat of measles has increased, mainly among children, with an estimated growth of 9 million cases and 136 thousand deaths. Photo: Canva.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Following years of declines in measles vaccination coverage, global measles cases in 2022 increased by 18 percent and deaths by 43 percent (compared to 2021), bringing the estimated number of cases to 9 million and deaths to 136,000, mostly among children.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is indicated by a new report from the World Health Organization<\/a> (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a> (CDC) of the United States, where they specify that measles continues to pose an increasing threat to children.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2022, 37 countries experienced large or disruptive outbreaks compared with 22 countries in 2021. Among the nations experiencing outbreaks, 28 were in the WHO African Region, six in the Eastern Mediterranean, two in South-East Asia and one in the European Region.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe rise in measles outbreaks and deaths is staggering, but unfortunately not unexpected given the declining vaccination rates we\u2019ve seen in recent years,\u201d said John Vertefeuille, director of CDC\u2019s Division of Global Immunization.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In this regard, she noted that measles cases anywhere represent a risk for all countries and communities where people are not sufficiently vaccinated. \u201cUrgent and targeted efforts are essential to prevent measles disease and deaths.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Measles can be prevented with two doses of measles vaccine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While 2022 saw a modest increase in global vaccination coverage compared to 2021, there were still 33 million children who missed a dose of measles vaccine: nearly 22 million missed their first dose and another 11 million missed their second dose.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The global vaccination coverage rate for the first dose, at 83 percent, and for the second dose, at 74 percent, was still far below the 95 percent coverage with the two doses needed to protect communities from outbreaks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Low-income countries, where the risk of death from measles is highest, continue to have the lowest vaccination rates, at just 66 percent \u2013 a rate that shows no recovery from the decline during the pandemic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of the 22 million children who missed their first dose of measles vaccine in 2022, more than half live in just 10 countries: Angola, Brazil, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Nigeria, Pakistan and the Philippines.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe failure to recover measles vaccine coverage in low-income countries after the pandemic is a wake-up call for action. Measles is called the virus of inequity for good reason. It is the disease that will find and attack those who are not protected,\u201d said Kate O\u2019Brien, Director of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals at WHO. \u201cChildren everywhere have the right to be protected by the life-saving measles vaccine, no matter where they live.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In response, CDC and WHO urge countries to find and vaccinate all children against measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases and encourage global stakeholders to help countries vaccinate their most vulnerable communities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You may be interested in:<\/strong> Civil rights organizations urge intervention in Medicaid cancellation<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tras a\u00f1os de descensos en la cobertura de vacunaci\u00f3n contra el sarampi\u00f3n, los casos de esta enfermedad en 2022 aumentaron 18 por ciento, mientras que las muertes crecieron 43 por ciento a nivel mundial (en comparaci\u00f3n con 2021), lo que eleva el n\u00famero estimado de casos a 9 millones y de muertes a 136 mil, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":20807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cover","8":"category-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20808,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20806\/revisions\/20808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}