Measles, Bassetti predicts a hellish summer: “Epidemic gone, the worst is to come”

The data on measles published today by the ISS «confirm that unfortunately an epidemic started in 2024: we have significant numbers, 213 cases in 3 months, compared to 2023 with few cases. It’s just the beginning, the worst is to come and I fear it will be at the turn of the summer. The affected population is unvaccinated or with only one dose, between 15 and 40 years old, a range already highlighted by the ECDC report which recorded 30 thousand cases in 2023. It strikes me that no one is worried about complications: it is not a quiet and manageable disease, if you catch it as an adult it can be serious and cause complications.” This is what the head of infectious diseases at the San Martino hospital in Genoa, Matteo Bassetti, told Adnkronos Salute. «Vaccination is the protection tool that the National Health Service must implement – suggests Bassetti – It is no longer the initiative of the individual, but the intervention of the State which must protect itself with vaccinations is needed».

The return of measles in Italy, with 86 cases reported in March alone (increased by 150% compared to 34 in January) for a total of 213 since the beginning of 2024, “does not see any other option other than vaccination”. For Fabrizio Pregliasco, virologist at the State University of Milan, there is «the need to promote campaigns to restore vaccination protection. We need information – he explains to Adnkronos Salute commenting on the latest bulletin released by the Higher Institute of Health – and we need a proactive commitment on the part of the Prevention Departments”, a call for vaccination for the categories at highest risk of contagion. In addition to protecting the unvaccinated, according to the expert it is necessary to “make up for the missed second doses for young people”, while “among adults we need to aim for the most exposed subjects, such as teachers and healthcare workers”. «We certainly see a situation linked to the decline in vaccination coverage», underlines Pregliasco. “Since measles is a disease with a very high R0 transmissibility index (each case can generate 13-15), and since contagion occurs through breathing, the only strategy – insists the doctor – is vaccination”.