According to a new report by the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, last year, measles was diagnosed in 10.3 million people worldwide. The concerning aspect is that this figure is 20 percent higher compared to 2022. The Ministry of Health Press Service reported this.
Experts conclude that the sharp increase in the number of cases is due to children not being adequately covered by measles vaccines.
For instance, two doses of vaccines are used for the prevention of this pathology. However, in 2023, more than 22 million boys and girls were not vaccinated in the first stage. 83 percent of children have only received the first dose of the vaccine, while only 74 percent of boys and girls have received the recommended second dose.
As a result, last year, there was a significant increase in measles cases in countries of Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Western Pacific regions.
Therefore, in 2023, nearly 107.5 thousand people lost their lives to this disease. Most of them were children under five years of age.
Hence, the WHO has called on the relevant governments to increase vaccination coverage against this disease among children.
