Fears over Covid’s impact on measles after the 2019 peak

The World Health Organization warned on Thursday that COVID-19 restrictions had crippled measles vaccination efforts amid fears over the impact on cases and deaths following a spike last year.

A joint publication by the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that after years of decline until 2016, cases had risen.

Last year, 869,770 measles cases were reported worldwide, the highest number since 1996.

The infectious disease killed 207,500 people in 2019, more than 50 percent of the historic low death toll reached in 2016.

“Although reported measles cases are lower in 2020, the efforts needed to control COVID-19 have resulted in interruptions in vaccination and crippled efforts to prevent and minimize measles outbreaks,” the WHO said in a statement.

Measures to control the spread of one viral disease, such as physical distancing, masks, and careful hand hygiene, can often have an impact on reducing the spread of others.

Yet all the measles warning signs are in red: More than 94 million people are currently at risk of not being immunized due to paused measles vaccination campaigns in 26 countries, WHO said.

Only eight of those countries have been able to restart their measles vaccination programs.

‘Measles crisis’

“We are concerned that COVID-19 is contributing to an increase in the number of measles cases and deaths,” said Gail McGovern, president of the American Red Cross.

Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, explained: “Before there was a coronavirus crisis, the world was dealing with a measles crisis, and it has not gone away.

“While health systems are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, we must not allow our fight against one deadly disease to come at the expense of our fight against another.”

Last year, all regions of the world witnessed an increase in recorded infections, with large outbreaks in nine countries accounting for 73 percent of global cases.

These were found in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Madagascar, North Macedonia, Samoa, Tonga, and Ukraine.

Measles, characterized by a red rash on the skin, is caused by a highly contagious virus that is spread by airborne transmission or direct contact.

Most deaths are due to complications associated with the disease.

Before vaccination began in 1963 and became widespread, major epidemics occurred every two to three years that could cause about 2.6 million deaths per year, according to the WHO.

‘Dangerous drops’ in immunization

After a dramatic drop in cases between 2000 and 2016 thanks to intensive vaccination campaigns, measles has since re-emerged, due in particular to mistrust of vaccines in developed countries.

Fears surrounding the combined measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine date back to a fraudulent and discredited 1998 study that linked the vaccine to autism.

Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, called the 2019 case numbers “alarming.”

“COVID-19 has led to dangerous drops in immunization coverage, increasing the risk of measles outbreaks,” he said.

“Measles is completely preventable. In an age where we have a powerful, safe and cost-effective vaccine, no one should die from this disease.”

The proportion of the world’s population that has received the first of two recommended doses of the vaccine has remained stagnant for more than a decade, between 84 and 85 percent, according to the CDC and WHO report.

To prevent flare-ups, a minimum coverage of 95 percent is needed with both doses.

Nigeria, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, India and the Philippines accounted for nearly half (48 percent) of the world’s total of 19.8 million babies who missed their first dose last year.

© 2020 AFP