In the first 2 months, over 17 thousand cases, there were less than 10 thousand in the same period of 2021.
They increased by 79% i cases of measles reported in the world in the first months of 2022 compared to those recorded in the same period of 2021. This is “a worrying signal of an increase in the risk of spreading vaccine-preventable diseases”, warn theWorld Health Organization and theUnicef, according to which there are “the conditions for a ‘perfect storm'”. The fear is that larger measles outbreaks will arise, complicit in service disruptions linked to the pandemic, growing inequalities in access to vaccines and the distraction of resources from routine immunization. Factors that “are leaving too many children without protection against measles and other diseases”.
I data released by WHO and Unicef show that more than 17,300 measles cases were reported globally in January and February 2022, up from 9,665 in the first two months of 2021. The risk of large outbreaks “It has increased as communities relax practices of social distancing and other preventive measures for Covid”, it has increased “with the millions of people displaced by conflicts and crises, from Ukraine to Ethiopia, Somalia and Afghanistan, the lack of clean water and sanitation, overcrowding, ”the experts list. “Since measles is very contagious, cases tend to come on quickly when levels of vaccination decrease. Agencies also fear that measles outbreaks could be a ‘spy’, a wake-up call that would suggest future “outbreaks” also “of other diseases that do not spread so quickly.”
Most of the cases of measles, the experts explain, “it occurs in contexts that have faced social and economic difficulties due to Covid-19, conflicts or other crises and have chronically weak health system infrastructures”. Measles, warns Catherine Russell, UNICEF executive director, “is more than a dangerous and potentially deadly disease. It is also a first indication that there are gaps in our global vaccination coverage, gaps that vulnerable children cannot afford. It is encouraging that people in many communities are starting to feel sufficiently protected from Covid to return to more social activities. But doing it in places where children do not receive routine vaccination creates the perfect storm for the spread of a disease such as measles. “
In 2020, 23 million children ‘lost’ i basic childhood vaccines, the highest number since 2009 and 3.7 million more than in 2019. As of April 2022, agencies reported 21 “large and disruptive” measles outbreaks worldwide in the past 12 months. Most cases have been reported in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean region. The figures are likely higher as the pandemic disrupted surveillance systems globally, with potential underreporting.
The countries with the majors measles outbreaks since last year they include Somalia, Yemen, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Ethiopia. Insufficient measles vaccination coverage is the main reason for outbreaks wherever they occur. “For many other diseases, the impact of these immunization service disruptions will be felt for decades to come,” said WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Now is the time to get essential immunization back on track and launch recovery campaigns so that everyone can have access to these life-saving vaccines.”
As of April 1, 2022, 57 campaigns of vaccine preventable diseases in 43 countries that should have taken place since the start of the pandemic, they are still postponed, impacting 203 million people, most of whom are children. Of these, 19 are measles campaigns, putting 73 million children at risk from missed shield injections. In Ukraine, the recovery of these vaccinations was interrupted first by the pandemic, then by the war. The goal now must be “to ensure that no recurrence of outbreaks as happened in 2017-2019, when there were over 115,000 measles cases and 41 deaths in the country, and it was the highest incidence in Europe”. For protect children it is important to achieve coverage of 95% or more with two doses of the vaccine against this disease.