WHO has around 22,000 measles cases in the EU

02/26/2015

The spread of measles in Germany and other European countries has clearly undermined the target of elimination of infectious diseases by 2015. The Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO) for Europe calls for "an intensification of measles vaccination efforts in view of the significant increase in infections." In total, "more than 22,000 cases have been reported in the European Region during the 2014-2015 winter season", according to the Communication from the WHO European Commission WHO.

"For 2014 and the first months of 2015, WHO reported that there were 22,149 cases of measles reported in seven countries in the region," putting the European Region's goal of eliminating the disease by 2015 at risk. Although the measles cases had declined sharply from 2013 to 2014 (reduction by 50 percent), since then new major outbreaks have occurred not only in Germany. "If we realize that we have seen a 96% reduction in the number of measles cases in the European Region over the past two decades and that we are only one step away from eliminating the disease, then those numbers can only shock us." , WHO Regional Director for Europe, Zsuzsanna Jakab.

Recent measles outbreaks in numerous European countries
"It is unacceptable that measles continue to cost lives, money and time after 50 years of efforts to create safe and effective vaccines," the WHO Regional Director continued. According to the WHO, Kyrgyzstan has been hit hardest by 7,477 reported infections in 2014 and 2015, with 5,340 measles cases in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 3,291 cases in Georgia, 3,247 cases in the Russian Federation and 1,674 cases in Italy , Germany with 583 cases and Kazakhstan with 537 diseases. "The overriding goal now is to effectively tackle current outbreaks in all affected countries through vaccination especially for vulnerable groups," Dr. Nedret Emiroglu, Deputy Director of the Communicable Diseases Unit of the WHO.

Controversial vaccination
Furthermore, there are more cases of measles outbreaks in the European Region "because there are accumulations of vulnerable people who are not vaccinated or inadequately vaccinated, especially as more and more parents either do not have their children vaccinated or have to overcome barriers to accessing vaccines," WHO reports , Traveling also increases the risk of measles virus exposure and spread to vulnerable populations without vaccine coverage. According to the news agency "dpa", in many European countries such as Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland and Serbia, vaccination is already mandatory today in view of the risks involved, and in other states the introduction of compulsory vaccination is being discussed due to the spread of measles. The existing vaccine compulsion in Serbia and other states, however, is quite controversial in the population. For example, there is a strong campaign against compulsory vaccination in Serbia, reports the news agency "dpa", citing Serbian health minister Zlatibor Loncar. The widely-held claim that measles vaccines could cause autism has long since been medically refuted, Loncar continued.

For the time being in Germany no vaccine compulsion
In view of the large outbreak of measles in Berlin, a compulsory vaccination has been brought in by various sides in this country, but the Federal Government remains for the time being in the previous line, which relies on education instead of coercion. Representatives of the opposition parties had also rejected the introduction of vaccination. However, these remain as a last option legally not excluded, said the Federal Minister of Justice Heiko Maas against the "image". Federal Health Minister Hermann Gröhe (CDU) has previously said in a similar vein, according to the news agency "dpa". Information campaigns and urgent requests to review the measles vaccine and to catch up missed vaccinations by the State Office for Health and Social Affairs Berlin, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), doctors organizations such as the Professional Association of Children and Adolescents (BVKJ) or the WHO remained so far often ignored.

Fundamental right to vaccinations?
The BVKJ president dr. Wolfram Hartman said in a recent news release from his association that the United Nations believes children have a fundamental right to protection from serious illness caused by vaccination. "Anyone who deliberately refuses vaccination to their child and thus exposes them to the risk of becoming ill or even dying of a vaccine-preventable disease is not acting in the interest of the child's well-being", Hartmann continues. The BVKJ therefore called for "sustainable policy measures to finally eradicate vaccine-preventable diseases in Germany, too." The WHO also emphasizes the benefits of measles vaccinations, pointing to the development of deaths since the introduction of general measles vaccines. The highly contagious, serious infectious disease caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year in 1980, compared to 145,700 measles deaths in 2013, according to the WHO. With around 400 deaths per day or 16 deaths per hour, measles still causes too many deaths to date, according to the WHO, but immunization between 2000 and 2013 has prevented an estimated 15.6 million deaths. (Fp)