NOS News•today, 6:00 PM
The number of measles cases worldwide almost doubled last year, reports the World Health Organization (WHO). Last year, almost 322,000 cases of the infectious disease were counted, compared to more than 171,000 in 2022.
This year the number of cases is likely to be even higher, the WHO warns. Almost half are registered in Europe and neighboring countries such as Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan.
The WHO is particularly concerned about the number of countries that suffered a “major or disruptive outbreak” of measles last year, which rose from 17 countries in 2022 to 51 countries a year later. The organization speaks of such an outbreak if at least twenty cases of measles are found per million inhabitants of a country during a year.
Covid effect
The organization points to Covid-19 as the main explanation. There were also many cases of measles in 2019, mainly in Africa. Due to the corona pandemic, the spread of measles worldwide subsequently decreased, but hardly any more children were vaccinated against the disease. Now that the Covid measures have been lifted almost everywhere, the disease can spread worldwide quite easily again.
The Netherlands is also at risk due to the worldwide increase in the number of people with measles. To give the disease no chance, a vaccination rate of at least 95 percent is required, but this is now below 90 percent.
The RIVM reported this week that it has put together a new Outbreak Management Team (OMT) to monitor the disease. So far this year, 64 cases of measles have been reported to the RIVM.
