Europe has had the best variety of measles instances since 1997, in accordance with a brand new report from the World Well being Group (WHO). There have been 127,350 instances in 2024 – about double the quantity from 2023.
“Measles is back, and it’s a wake-up call,” says Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe. “Without high vaccination rates, there is no health security.” Final yr, there have been 38 deaths from measles.
Transmission is much like COVID, with respiratory droplets and aerosols (airborne transmission) spreading the virus between individuals. The an infection produces a rash and fever in delicate instances, and encephalitis (mind swelling), pneumonia and blindness in extreme instances.
Hospitalisation and deaths are overwhelmingly in unvaccinated individuals, with mortality charges in developed international locations round one in 1,000 to at least one in 5,000 measles instances.
Every individual contaminated with measles will, on common, unfold the virus to between 12 and 18 different individuals. That is extra infectious than COVID. For instance, somebody with the omicron variant would unfold the virus to round eight others.
In 2022 the WHO had described measles as an “imminent threat in every region of the world”. The widespread influence of COVID made it more durable for individuals to entry healthcare, lowering the flexibility of standard well being companies, like vaccinations, to perform correctly.
These new stark figures from WHO Europe are an inevitable consequence of decrease vaccination charges. Measles is sort of completely vaccine-preventable, with two doses offering larger than 99% safety towards an infection. The vaccine has a superb security report, with extreme hurt being extraordinarily uncommon.
The proportion of the inhabitants that must be vaccinated to maintain native transmission low and stop outbreaks (so-called “herd immunity”) is round 95%.
WHO Europe highlighted some examples of the place there are clear gaps in vaccine protection. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Romania, fewer than 80% of eligible youngsters have been vaccinated in 2023, with charges beneath 50% for the previous 5 or extra years. Romania had the best variety of measles instances in Europe in 2024 – an estimated 30,692 instances.
Misinformation is the motive force
Misinformation is a crucial issue that reduces vaccine uptake. For instance, within the UK, former doctor Andrew Wakefield introduced falsified information in 2002 claiming the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine prompted autism. He in some way received these claims revealed in The Lancet – though the paper was later retracted.
This faux scare obtained sustained media protection, which resulted in decrease uptake in younger youngsters on the time and was then a key issue a big measles outbreak amongst youngsters in England in 2012.
The claims have unfold internationally. In 2020, a US inhabitants survey discovered that “18% of our respondents mistakenly state that it is very or somewhat accurate to say that vaccines cause autism”.
Sadly, misinformation about well being may even be discovered on the highest ranges of presidency. US President Donald Trump repeatedly made false claims throughout the COVID pandemic, together with the suggestion that injecting disinfectant may remedy COVID. In 2025, he appointed Robert F. Kennedy because the Secretary of Well being and Human Companies. Kennedy has lengthy espoused anti-vaccine viewpoints, together with being required to apologise in 2015 for evaluating vaccination programmes to the Holocaust.
RFK Jr. was made to apologise for evaluating vaccination programmes with the Holocaust.
Maxim Elramsisy/Shutterstock
In a latest interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity, Kennedy stated of the MMR vaccine: “It does cause deaths every year. It causes — it causes all the illnesses that measles itself causes, encephalitis and blindness, et cetera.”
That is unfaithful. The Infectious Illness Society of America factors out that there have been “no deaths related to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in healthy individuals”. That is amid two measles deaths in unvaccinated individuals within the US, the primary such deaths since 2003. There are estimates that the measles vaccine prevented 94 million deaths globally between 1974 to 2024.
The US Nationwide Institute for Well being, one of many world’s greatest funders of well being analysis, introduced on March 10 2025 that it was axing analysis that aimed to know and handle vaccine hesitancy.
This goes alongside the US Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) apparently planning a big research into potential associations between vaccines and autism, regardless of dozens of research indicating there being no such hyperlink.
This volatility coming from the US and elsewhere issues for Europe. Trump and the US have political supporters in Europe, so their messaging carries weight and will do hurt. Anti-vaccine sentiment promoted on Fb from inside the US resulted in feedback on the posts from a number of international locations. The usage of social media has been noticed to unfold misinformation internationally, for instance, inside Europe. Russian trolls are additionally concerned in creating arguments about vaccines.
There’s an pressing want for outbreaks to be introduced again beneath management and for correct details about vaccines to be the important thing message in public discussions. As Dr Kluge highlights: “The measles virus never rests – and neither can we.”
