[Measles Incidence] Has Declined Globally

2023 Author: Abraham Higgins | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-30 04:59

A decade of WHO and UNICEF efforts to scale up measles vaccination programs for children has generally been successful. However, progress has been uneven and the threat of disease outbreaks remains. The report, which provides indicators on the incidence of measles in the world for the period from 2000 to 2010, was published by WHO experts.

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A decade of efforts by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to increase the number of children revaccinated against measles have yielded results, Medscape Medical News reported.

However, progress is uneven and the threat of outbreaks in different regions of the planet remains, according to WHO experts, the authors of the report published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The report provides indicators of the incidence of measles in the world for the period 2000-2010.

During this time, the number of measles cases reported annually worldwide has decreased by 60 percent (from 853,480 to 339,845 cases per year). The incidence decreased by 66 percent, falling from 146 cases per million to 50. Deaths from measles fell from 733 thousand in 2000 to 164 thousand in 2008.

One of the report's authors, Robert Perry, of WHO's immunization, vaccines and biologics division, notes that the world's lowest incidence of measles in 2008 was 277,968. This average remained unchanged in 2009, although there was some increase in Africa (from 37,012 to 83,479) and the Eastern Mediterranean Region (from 12,120 to 36,605). It was balanced by a decline in incidence in the Western Pacific region (from 147,987 to 66,609 cases).

In 2010, the number of detected measles cases worldwide rose to 339,845 as a result of an outbreak in several countries, including Malawi (118,712 cases), Burkina Faso (54,118) and Iraq (30,328).

The increase in incidence in 2010 occurred despite the continued expansion of vaccination and revaccination programs for children with the WHO-recommended measles-containing MCV1 vaccine.

The authors of the report see the reasons for this in the weakening of the political and financial obligations of individual countries to provide each child with two doses of vaccine.

However, the overall rate of measles vaccination worldwide increased from 72 percent in 2000 to 85 percent in 2010.

Thanks to additional immunization efforts by global organizations, a billion children have received the MCV1 measles vaccine in 10 years.