The alarm comes from the European Commission, the World Health Organization and Unicef. The problem arises from the impossibility of vaccinating almost 2 million children against the disease. “Our determination to guarantee the benefits of vaccination to everyone, everywhere must not waver”, say the three institutions on the occasion of European Immunization Week 2024
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Measles vaccination is not yet accessible to everyone. Not only that, in Europe the spread of the disease is growing, with a 60-fold increase in the number of cases recorded in 2023 compared to the previous year. The alarm was raised by a joint statement by the European Commission, the World Health Organization and Unicef on the occasion of European Immunization Week 2024, from 21 to 27 April.
The alarm
“In the last three years – we read in the note – more than 1.8 million children in the WHO European region have not been able to be vaccinated against measles. The consequence of this is a 60-fold increase in the number of measles cases in 2023 versus 2022.” The international institutions then reiterate that their “determination to guarantee the benefits of vaccination to everyone, everywhere must not waver”. “Together – they conclude – we will continue to raise awareness of the benefits of vaccination and increase confidence in vaccines to support demand publishes about vaccines, now and in the future. At the same time, we continue to help ensure that health systems are adequately prepared for any epidemic and future pandemics.”
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Measles and whooping cough
Other data on the subject comes from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Between March 2023 and February 2024, 5,770 cases of measles and at least 5 deaths due to the infectious disease were recorded in Europe. During the same period, there was a 10-fold increase in whooping cough cases compared to the previous two years. “It is disheartening to see that, despite decades of well-documented progress in the safety and efficacy of vaccines, countries in the EU and the European Economic Area and globally are still dealing with outbreaks of several vaccine-preventable diseases,” he said in a statement. the director of the ECDC Andrea Ammon. “Vaccines have protected many generations and we should ensure they continue to do so.” Children are at greatest risk, especially those younger than one year who are not yet fully protected by the vaccine. For this reason, explains the ECDC, especially in the case of measles, the role of herd immunity is essential: “Measles spreads very easily, therefore, a high vaccination coverage, of at least 95% of the population vaccinated with two doses is essential to interrupt transmission.”
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Increase in cases in Milan
Measles in the Lombardy capital had practically disappeared during the pandemic period. From September 2023 to March 2024, according to an analysis published in Eurosurveillance, a magazine of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 30 cases of infection were recorded in Milan, more than a third of all cases recorded from August 2019 to August 2023 Of these cases, 13 were confirmed by tests and eight of them required hospitalization. The research was coordinated by the University and revealed that the majority of people infected in the metropolitan city are adults. “While we have not yet identified large, disruptive outbreaks,” the researchers say, “strengthened fever and rash surveillance and catch-up vaccination activities are critical to help limit the impact of cross-border transmission following travel to Endemic countries and facilitate the control of new outbreaks”.
