WHO: Over the past 10 years, the incidence of measles has decreased by 60%
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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The 10-year efforts of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to increase the number of children who have been vaccinated against measles have produced results.
However, progress is uneven and the threat of outbreaks in different regions of the world remains, experts of WHO, authors of the report published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report believe. The report provides indicators on the incidence of measles in the world for the period from 2000 to 2010.
During this time, the number of cases of measles, registered globally, decreased by 60 percent (from 853,480 to 339,845 cases per year). The incidence rate decreased by 66 percent, decreasing from 146 cases per million people to 50. Mortality from measles decreased from 733,000 in 2000 to 164,000 in 2008.
One of the authors of the report, Robert Perry, a WHO member who deals with immunization, vaccines and biologicals, notes that the lowest incidence of measles in the world in 2008 was 277,968 cases. This average remained unchanged in 2009, although a slight increase was seen in Africa (from 37,012 to 83,479) and the Eastern Mediterranean region (from 12,120 to 36,605). It was balanced by a decrease in the incidence in the West Pacific region (from 147,987 to 66,609 cases).
In 2010, the number of measles cases detected worldwide increased to 339,845 as a result of the outbreak in a number of countries, including Malawi (118,712 cases), Burkina Faso (54,118) and Iraq (30,328).
The increase in the incidence rate in 2010 occurred despite the continued expansion of vaccination and revaccination programs for children recommended by WHO measles vaccine MCV1.
The authors of the report see the reasons for this in the weakening of political and financial obligations of individual countries to provide each child with two doses of vaccine.
Nevertheless, the overall level of measles vaccination in the world increased from 72 percent in 2000 to 85 percent in 2010.
Thanks to the additional immunization efforts undertaken by the world organizations, over a 10-year period measles-containing vaccine MCV1 received a billion children.