More than half the world’s countries could be considered at high risk of a measles outbreak by the end of 2024 due to a widespread rise in cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday.
According to WHO, the number of reported measles cases worldwide in 2023 increased by 79%, to more than 306 thousand cases, compared to 2022.
The resurgence of measles, a contagious viral disease that can be fatal, has been attributed to low vaccination coverage during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The number of countries with high-risk outbreaks, with an incidence of more than 20 cases per million inhabitants, increased from 32 in 2022 to 51 in 2023, according to the UN agency.
Because in many situations cases and deaths are unreported or unrelated to measles, WHO estimates that there will actually be fewer deaths in 2022 than in 2021).
According to the WHO, 92% of children who die from measles correspond to 24% of the world’s population, most of whom are from poorer countries.
WHO emphasizes that to prevent measles worldwide, it is necessary that 95% of children receive two doses of the vaccine.
However, global vaccination coverage is 83% and has not returned to 86% from 2019, when the coronavirus causing the pandemic respiratory disease Covid-19 was discovered in China.