Global measles deaths show historic decline

GENEVA — The annual death toll from measles dropped below 100,000 worldwide for the first time last year, to 90,000, the World Health Organization and other international agencies said on Thursday.

Reporting an 84 percent drop in 16 years, to 90,000 deaths in 2016 from more than 550,000 in 2000, the Measles and Rubella Initiative said more children getting vaccinations was the main reason for the worldwide decline.

But the report stressed the world is still far from eliminating measles. Coverage with the first of two required doses of vaccine has stalled around 85 percent since 2009, it said, short of the 95 percent needed. Coverage with the second dose was only 64 percent in 2016.

“We must strive to reach zero measles cases,” said JeanMarie Okwo-Bele, the director of the WHO’s immunization department.

“Measles elimination will only be reached if vaccines reach every child, everywhere.”

M&RI is a partnership of the American Red Cross, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United Nations Foundation, the UNICEF children’s fund, and the WHO.

Its report said that since 2000, about 5.5 billion doses of measles vaccine have been distributed.

“Saving an average of 1.3 million lives per year through measles vaccine is an incredible achievement and makes a world free of measles seem possible, even probable, in our lifetime,” said Dr Robert Linkins of the M&RI.

However, it added that about 20.8 million children are still missing their first measles vaccine dose.

More than half the unvaccinated children live in six countries: Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It said large outbreaks of measles continue to occur in those countries as well as others in Europe and North America, putting children at risk of severe health complications such as pneumonia, diarrhea, encephalitis, blindness, and death.