GENEVA – The World Health Organisation (WHO) voiced alarm on Feb 20 at the rapid spread of measles, with more than 306,000 cases reported worldwide in 2023 – a 79 per cent increase from 2022.

“We in the measles world are extremely concerned,” said Dr Natasha Crowcroft, a WHO technical adviser on measles and rubella.

She stressed that measles cases are typically dramatically under-reported, and that the real number is likely far higher.

To get more accurate figures, the WHO models the numbers each year, with its latest estimate indicating that there were 9.2 million cases and 136,216 measles deaths in 2022.

Such modelling has not yet been done for 2023, but Dr Crowcroft pointed out that 2022 had already seen a 43 per cent jump in deaths from 2021.

Given the ballooning case numbers, “we would anticipate an increase in deaths in 2023 as well”, she told journalists in Geneva, via video link from Cairo.

“This year is going to be very challenging.”

She warned that more than half of all countries globally are currently believed to be at high risk of measles outbreaks by the end of 2024.

Some 142 million children are estimated to be susceptible to falling ill.

Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus that attacks mainly children. The most serious complications include blindness, brain swelling, diarrhoea and severe respiratory infections.

A major cause of the swelling numbers is the “backsliding immunisation coverage”, Dr Crowcroft said.

At least 95 per cent of children need to be fully vaccinated against the disease in a locality to prevent outbreaks, but global vaccination rates have slipped to 83 per cent.

There is a great deal of inequity in the distribution of cases, and even more so when it comes to deaths.

Dr Crowcroft pointed out that 92 per cent of all children who die from measles live among less than a quarter of the global population, mainly in very low-income countries. AFP