Geneva: The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a warning that there is now a serious risk of measles spreading around the world as a result of COVID-19’s impact on vaccination rates and the disease’s oversight. According to a joint report from the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published yesterday, the COVID epidemic resulted in a record-breaking number of roughly 40 million children missing a dose of the measles vaccine last year.
Although measles cases have not yet increased significantly compared to prior years, according to Patrick O’Connor, WHO’s measles lead, now is the moment to take action. We are at a turning point, he continued, and attempting to ameliorate this will be very difficult over the next 12 to 24 months.
The WHO official stated that since the beginning of this year, there has already been an increase in major, disruptive outbreaks. He added that he was especially concerned about certain regions of sub-Saharan Africa. The WHO estimates that there were nine million cases and 128000 fatalities from measles worldwide in 2021, with big and unsettling outbreaks occurring in 22 different countries.