WHO warns of 'alarming rise' in Victorian disease cases - full list of symptoms

23 January 2024 , 23:23

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Measles cases have soared exponentially with an almost 45-fold rise in cases across Europe, the World Health Organisation has warned.

Health officials are seeing an alarming rise in cases of the disease, which predominantly affects children and has been known to be deadly or cause lifelong disabilities. According to WHO, there were 42,200 cases reported by member states last year - compared with 941 the year before.

Two in five cases were children aged between one and four, while one in five were patients who were 20 or older. WHO officials have now said the figure could rise further if parents do not vaccinate their children against the disease.

It comes as the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) released new figures revealing 144 new measles cases in the UK this month alone, 74 of which were in the first week of January and a further 70 over the following seven-day period. The biggest rise in cases so far has been in the West Midlands where 36 cases were reported in the week to 14 January.

Measles is a viral infection resulting in a fever, cough and small red spots with white-blue centres on the skin and inside the mouth. While children in most cases will recover, it has been known to affect the lungs leading to serious complications which can cause permanent health issues.

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It's been linked to pneumonia, meningitis, blindness and seizures, and in 2021 WHO recorded 128,000 measles deaths – most of whom were children under the age of five. UK health officials are now also pushing for more parents to get their child inoculated with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR).

Dr Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said it was "vital" to respond rapidly to the outbreak. “Vaccination is the only way to protect children from this potentially dangerous disease,” he said. “Urgent vaccination efforts are needed to halt transmission and prevent further spread.

“It is vital that all countries are prepared to rapidly detect and timely respond to measles outbreaks, which could endanger progress towards measles elimination.” WHO said that sliding vaccination rates were to blame, but more people were now travelling abroad after Covid-19, increasing the risk of cross-border disease transmission and spread within communities.

On Friday, the head of the UKHSA warned the UK is on a “trajectory for everything getting much worse” when it comes to measles spreading. Professor Dame Jenny Harries told the PA news agency that “concerted action” is needed to tackle the virus, as she visited a measles blackspot in the West Midlands.

She suggested the majority of people are not against their child receiving the MMR jab, but that they need more information to feel confident about their decision. She added: “What we are seeing at the moment with measles is that people have forgotten what a serious illness it is…

“We have had very high vaccination rates, especially for young families, but they are low at the moment.” Vaccination rates across the country have been dropping, but there are particular concerns about some regions, including parts of London and the West Midlands.

UKHSA data on measles cases in the UK shows the majority have been in children aged under 10. The authority has declared a national incident, which it said is an internal mechanism signalling the growing public health risk and enabling it to focus work in specific areas.

Official figures show uptake of the vaccine is at its lowest point in more than a decade. In 2022/23, some 84.5% of youngsters in England had received both doses of the jab by the time they were five years old – the lowest level since 2010/11. Some 92.5% had received one dose.

Mike Tildesley, professor of infectious disease modelling at the University of Warwick and an expert in disease spread and Covid, said the R number for measles – the number of people that one infected person will pass the illness on to – is much higher than for Covid. “This means we need over 90% of the population to be immune or you’re going to start seeing cases growing,” he said.

“We have childhood vaccinations for measles which for many years have helped us to get rid of the disease. Unfortunately, if those vaccination levels drop then we will start to see cases going up and that’s what we are seeing at the moment.”