Measles cases up four-fold in first quarter compared to 2018
A vocal minority of scientifically uninformed ‘anti-vaxxers’ around the world are allowing the often fatal contagious disease to flare up again
Geneva — The number of measles cases worldwide nearly quadrupled in the first quarter of 2019 to 112,163 against the same period last year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday, citing provisional data. Higher rates of the preventable but contagious disease — which can kill a child or leave it blind, deaf or brain-damaged — have been recorded in all regions, the UN agency said in a statement, appealing for better vaccination coverage. Fresh outbreaks have hit the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Myanmar, the Philippines, Sudan, Thailand and Ukraine, “causing many deaths — mostly among young children”, the WHO said. It gave no figures for fatalities but noted it estimates that only one in 10 cases is reported globally. “Over recent months, spikes in case numbers have also occurred in countries with high overall vaccination coverage, including the US as well as Israel, Thailand, and Tunisia, as the disease has spr...
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