Millions of Children Susceptible to Measles

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported about forty million children are currently susceptible to the growing measles risk.

On November 23, 2022, the WHO announced a record twenty-five million children missed their first measle vaccine dose, and an additional 14.7 million children missed their second dose.

This decline is a significant setback in global progress toward achieving and maintaining measles elimination and leaves millions of children susceptible to infection, stated the WHO.

Since 2016, ten countries have previously eliminated measles, experienced outbreaks, and reestablished local virus transmission.

"The paradox of the pandemic is that while vaccines were developed in record time and deployed in the largest vaccination campaign in history, routine immunization programs were badly disrupted, and millions of kids missed out on life-saving vaccinations against deadly diseases like measles," commented WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a press release. 

"Getting immunization programs back on track is critical."

"Behind every statistic in this report is a child at risk of a preventable disease."

Under the Immunization Agenda 2030 global immunization strategy, partners remain committed to supporting investments in strengthening surveillance to detect outbreaks quickly, respond with urgency, and immunize all children who are not yet protected from vaccine-preventable diseases.

As of November 17, 2022, the U.S. CDC reported 51 measles cases in five U.S. jurisdictions during 2022.

In the U.S., measles vaccines are generally available at most clinics and pharmacies.

Other measles outbreak news is posted at Vax-Before-Travel.com/Measles.

Vax-Before-Travel publishes fact-checked, research-based travel vaccine news manually curated for mobile readers.