Measles is a global threat again: 22 million babies were not vaccinated during the pandemic, warns CDC

(CNN) – The global measles threat has worsened after 22 million babies worldwide did not receive their vaccinations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Wednesday. CDC).

Measles is one of the most contagious viruses known and still kills more than 60,000 people a year, most of them young children. In 2000 alone, more than a million people were killed.

Vaccination campaigns changed that, but it doesn’t take much to threaten any progress.

The CDC said Wednesday that reported measles cases declined in 2020 after a global resurgence from 2017-2019. The agency doesn’t necessarily think it’s good news. “However, the large and disturbing measles outbreaks in 2020 suggest that measles transmission is underreported,” the CDC team wrote in the agency’s weekly report on deaths and illnesses, the MMWR.

Drop in measles vaccination

The CDC notes that millions of children did not receive their vaccinations due to the pandemic.

“More than 22 million babies did not receive their first dose of measles vaccine, 3 million more than in 2019 and the largest annual increase in more than 20 years,” the CDC said.

“While reported measles cases declined in 2020, evidence suggests that we will likely see calm before the storm as the risk of outbreaks continues to grow worldwide,” Dr. Kate O’Brien said in a statement, Director of the Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologics at the World Health Organization (WHO).

“It is essential that countries get vaccinated as quickly as possible against COVID-19, but this requires new resources so that it does not come at the cost of essential immunization programs. Routine immunization must be protected and strengthened, otherwise, we run the risk of exchanging one disease for another. “

CDC and WHO Warning

The CDC and WHO have been warning that the pandemic has affected routine childhood immunization programs.

“Large numbers of unvaccinated children, measles outbreaks, and deviant disease detection and diagnosis to support covid-19 responses are factors that increase the likelihood of measles-related deaths and serious complications in children,” Dr. Kevin Cain, CDC’s director of global immunization, said in a statement.

“We must act now to strengthen disease surveillance systems and close immunity gaps, before travel and trade return to pre-pandemic levels, to prevent deadly measles outbreaks and mitigate the risk of other preventable diseases. by vaccination “.

The CDC estimates that measles vaccination programs prevent more than 31 million deaths a year.

“Even before the pandemic, we were seeing how even small pockets of low measles vaccination coverage could drive unprecedented outbreaks, even in countries where the disease was considered eradicated. And now, COVID-19 is creating ever-widening gaps in coverage at a rate we have not seen in decades, “Ephrem Tekle Lemango, UNICEF associate director of immunization, said in a statement.

“While we have not yet seen an increase in cases, measles is simply too contagious. If we do not act, the gaps will become outbreaks and many children will be exposed to a preventable but life-threatening disease,” he added.