[ 2011-12-04 ]

WHO issues Europe measles warning
European countries need to act now to tackle
measles outbreaks, the World Health Organization
warns.

The WHO report says there were over 26,000 measles
cases in 36 European countries from January to
October 2011.

Western European countries reported 83% of those
cases, with 14,000 in France alone.

In England and Wales, there were just under 1,000
confirmed measles cases in that period - compared
with just 374 in the whole of 2010.

Altogether, measles outbreaks in Europe have
caused nine deaths, including six in France, and
7,288 hospitalisations.

France has now launched a nationwide campaign to
raise awareness about the need for MMR
vaccination.

Jean-Yves Grall, the Director-General for Health
in France, said: "France can simply not afford to
have deaths, painful and costly hospitalisations,
disruptions to work and school from a completely
vaccine-preventable disease."

Ninety per cent of European cases were amongst
adolescents and adults who had not been vaccinated
or people where it was not known if they had been
vaccinated or not.

And measles from Europe has been linked to
outbreaks in several other countries including
Brazil, Canada and Australia.

'Potential danger'
Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO regional director for Europe,
said: "The increase in measles in European
countries reveals a serious challenge to achieving
the regional measles elimination goal by 2015.

"Every country in the European region must take
the opportunity now to raise coverage amongst
susceptible populations, improve surveillance and
severely reduce measles virus circulation before
the approaching measles high season."

A spokeswoman for the Health Protection Agency,
which covers England and Wales, said: "Anyone who
missed out on MMR as a child will continue to be
at risk of measles, which explains why we are
continuing to see cases in a broad age range."

"We are again reminding parents and young adults
of the importance of immunisation. We cannot
stress enough that measles is serious and in some
cases it can be fatal."

"Measles is a highly infectious and potentially
dangerous illness which spreads very easily.
Whether you stay here in the UK or travel abroad
it is crucial that individuals who may be at risk
are fully immunised."

Source - BBC

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