Measles cases continue to increase around the world

There has been a rapid increase in the global measles outbreak, with reported cases jumping 300 percent in the first three months of 2019 compared with the same period last year, according to the World Health Organization.

As reasons for the increase, the organization has cited a deep mistrust of vaccines, gaps in immunization coverage and lack of access to health care facilities or routine checkups.

This month, the WHO sounded the alarm over the diseases’s grip on the Democratic Republic of Congo, where nearly 5,000 people with measles died in the first 10 months of this year.

The highly contagious disease is caused by a virus and typically begins with a high fever and rash that can lead to complications of deafness, pneumonia, diarrhea and encephalitis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And though measles has become largely preventable through vaccines administered during childhood, the WHO estimated that 110,000 people, most of them children under the age of 5 and living in developing countries in Africa and Asia, succumbed to it in 2017. Here are some of the countries that have detected a large number of measles cases.

Congo

The world’s biggest measles epidemic is in Congo, with over 233,000 people infected this year alone, the WHO estimated. A total of 4,723 people died of it from January through October as the disease spread to all 26 provinces in the country.

Ukraine

From Britain to Romania, Germany to Italy, Europe has experienced a setback in its efforts to end measles, with the disease killing 72 people in 2018. Ukraine has been the epicenter of the measles surge, with doubts about child vaccinations leading to an increase in the number of suspected cases in 2019, to almost 57,000 people. 

Brazil

South America’s largest nation thought it had rid itself of measles in 2015. But the disease has taken root in the country yet again, with the total number of suspected cases this year reaching almost 50,000 as of early November, according to the WHO.

The Philippines

Vaccine confidence in the Philippines has plummeted following a controversy in which an anti-Dengue vaccine was linked to the deaths of several children in 2017. As a result, measles vaccination dropped from above 80 per cent in 2008 to below 70 per cent in 2017, according to the WHO. 

Suspected measles cases in Manila and nearby regions have increased to almost 44,000 as of November this year.

The United States

Over 1,200 measles cases were confirmed in 31 states in 2019 as of early November, with a majority of the new cases appearing in New York. 

© 2019 The New York Times