A new report released by World Health Organization (WHO) states that 59 million lives have been saved because of the measles vaccine, and currently the death rate related to measles has dropped to 88 per cent between the year 2000 and 2024. Credit for such a milestone is given to the global immunisation efforts. Although there has been a drastic decrease in the death rate related to measles, there has been a surge worldwide, around 11 million infections recorded in 2024, approximately 800,000 more injections than what happened in 2019. Around 95,000 children below the age of 5 died due to this disease in 2024.

World’s most contagious virus

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General said, “Measles is the world’s most contagious virus, and these data show once again how it will exploit any gap in our collective defences against it,” he also added that Measles does not respect borders, but when every child in every community is vaccinated against it, costly outbreaks can be avoided, lives can be saved, and this disease can be eliminated from entire nations.

As per WHO guidance, almost 95 per cent coverage from the disease by just two measles vaccines, this can stop transmission and also safeguard the outbreaks in the community.

The report shared that in 2024, 84 percent of children were vaccinated with the first dose and 76 per cent received the second. Although these numbers have been a little better than previous years where around 2 million more children were immunised.

Decline in death rate in African country

What is the most interesting part of the report, is that there has been a 40 per cent decrease in cases and 50 per cent decline in deaths in African countries in 2024 as compared to 2019. On the other hand, there has been an 86 per cent increase in cases in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, 47 per cent in the European Region, and 42 per cent in the South-East Asian Region.

There have been disruptive measles outbreaks in 59 countries; this number has tripled as compared to what was reported in 2021. This is the highest onset after Covid-19 pandemic, and has exposed the immunisation programmes and health systems globally.

Currently, the situation is still alarming as 30 million or more children are still under-protected against measles.

There has also been a cut in funding drastically, further widening the gap and making the outbreak increase in years to come. As per the report there are 96 countries that have successfully controlled measles, however, the goal to eliminate the disease by 2030 seems a distant dream.

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