‘Measles is back': cases in the EU have jumped by a factor of ten

Yahoo

17-03-2025

Cases of measles increased by 10-fold in the European Union last year, the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) has said.
In 2024, 32,265 cases of the Victorian-era disease were recorded in the EU – compared to just 3,973 in 2023. About 60 per cent of those infected were hospitalised.
The UK also reported a surge in cases last year at 2,900, an eight-fold increase compared to 2023.
The spike has been felt around the world. In the World Health Organization's European Region – which includes 53 countries in Europe and Central Asia – cases doubled in 2024 and reached their highest levels on record since 1997.
In 2024, there were 127,350 reported cases across the region – nearly all of which were in the unvaccinated. At least 38 people died, mostly children under five who are more vulnerable to the disease.
Measles is one of the most contagious viruses on earth, and can lead to serious complications like pneumonia, brain swelling, blindness, and a phenomenon known as 'immune amnesia' – whereby a person's immune system loses the ability to fight off common infections.
The highest number of cases in the WHO's Europe region were recorded in Romania, at 30,692, followed by Russia and Kazakhstan.
The sharp increase has been blamed largely on disruptions in routine vaccination programmes caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which have yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels.
In 2020, 1.8 million infants in Europe missed their measles vaccine, which is given in two doses – at 12 months and three years.
The backlog has yet to be cleared, with half a million children in Europe missing their first dose in 2023 alone.
Disinformation spread through social media – including the discredited claim by former doctor Andrew Wakefield that the MMR vaccine causes autism – has also majorly contributed to widespread vaccine hesitancy, which has picked up speed again since the pandemic.
The global vaccination coverage for the disease now stands at just 83 per cent, which falls significantly short of the 95 per cent needed to eradicate measles.
'Measles is back, and its a wake-up call,' Hans Kluge, WHO director for Europe, said in a statement. 'Without high vaccination rates, there is no health security.'
The Victorian-era disease has also made a major comeback in the US this year, which recorded its first measles death, in an unvaccinated child, in over a decade last month.
So far in 2025, the country has recorded more than 250 cases across several states – exceeding the entire total for 2024.
The majority of cases have been reported in rural Texas, where vaccine scepticism is particularly high.
It comes as the new health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Junior, has promoted the false theory that childhood vaccinations are linked to autism, and promoted alternative treatments – like cod liver oil – as 'miraculous' remedies to treat the disease.
In Afghanistan, where only 43 per cent of children have both measles vaccines, there has also been an 'alarming surge' in cases this year, according to the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières, which operates three hospitals in the country.
In the first eight weeks of 2025, MSF recorded one child dying every day from measles complications – a three-fold increase from the same period in 2024.
The Taliban-run Ministry of Health said the report was inaccurate.
Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.