As the year limps to the finish line, new data from the World Health Organization and the CDC is shedding light on just how much we are losing ground in the fight against suffering and death caused by measles, a vaccine-preventable viral infection
As the year limps to the finish line, new data from the World Health Organization and the CDC is shedding light on just how much we are losing ground in the fight against suffering and death caused by measles, a vaccine-preventable viral infection. According to the new estimates released last week, more than 140,000 people lost their lives in 2018. Most of these deaths occurred in young children:
Most deaths were among children under 5 years of age. Babies and very young children are at greatest risk from measles infections, with potential complications including pneumonia and encephalitis (a swelling of the brain), as well as lifelong disability – permanent brain damage, blindness or hearing loss.
Prior to the development of a safe and effective vaccine, which was introduced in 1963, there were millions of measles cases around the world and about 2.6 million deaths each year. The success of the vaccine, largely thanks to donor-driven efforts to reach the poorest regions of the world where the risk of death is higher, has been incredible. Though there have been serious concerns over lower than desired vaccine coverage in many areas, both resource poor and rich, worldwide measles deaths plummeted to an all-time low of 90,000 in 2016.
Since 2016, cases of measles have increased steadily, so it should come as no surprise that there have been more deaths. In 2017, 110,000 people died as a result of the virus. The 2018 data, as described above, confirms two consecutive years with a significant increase in mortality. 2019 is likely going to give us a third.
I’ve written about our 2019 year of measles here in the United States, which at nearly 1,300 cases is the worst since 1992. Things haven’t been any better worldwide, with the most cases since 2006 being reported though the first half of the year. When the 2019 mortality data is eventually made available, I’ll almost certainly cover it on SBM. Prepare yourself for the possibility that somewhere in the ballpark of a quarter of a million children will have died this year.
Of course, the number of reported deaths caused by measles each year is almost certainly an underestimate of how many ultimately will die from the infection. In October, the concept of immune amnesia in the aftermath of measles infection was a hot topic because of new and confirmatory data. Children who survive a bout