Measles deaths plunge to new low

For the first time in history, annual deaths around the globe from measles have fallen below 100,000, the World Health Organization announced this year. As recently as the 1980s, measles killed 2.6 million people a year.

The decline — a public health triumph, as measles has long been a leading killer of malnourished children — was accomplished by widespread donor-supported vaccination that began in the early 2000s.

The estimated number of deaths fell to 89,780 in 2016, but the figure was released by the WHO only in October.

Measles vaccines were invented in the 1960s. Since 2000, 5.5 billion doses have been given out, according to Gavi, the Geneva organization through which most donors support the vaccination effort. The group works with the WHO, the U.N. Children’s Fund, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Red Cross, the U.N. Foundation and others.

Many developing countries that first rolled out vaccines in mass campaigns with donor help are now buying their own for routine children’s immunization. Because measles is so contagious outbreaks can be prevented only by pushing vaccination rates to 95 percent.

The Disneyland measles outbreak of 2014-15 led California to pass tough new laws requiring vaccination, and vaccination rates among Southern California kindergartners are now close to 98 percent.

In wealthy countries, deaths from measles are rare — only about 1 case in 5,000 is fatal. The disease kills up to 6 percent of malnourished children in poor countries, the WHO estimates, and up to 30 percent in some outbreaks among refugees. Donald G. McNeil Jr. is a New York Times writer.