Cases of measles in Europe on the rise

The number of cases of the measles have sharply risen in Europe, with more than 6,000 people affected in the first nine months of 2008 alone, casting doubts over a target to eradicate the disease by 2010, a new report has shown.

Of the some 12,000 cases reported from 2006–2007, including seven deaths, most were in Germany, the UK, Switzerland, Italy and Romania.

These countries also have vaccination rates below 90 percent – and well below the 95 percent target of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

By contrast, countries such as Finland, Slovenia, Slovakia and Hungary are reaching the recommended WHO vaccination levels and have reported few measles cases, the report shows.

A majority of the cases concerned children, although almost a fifth of those affected were aged 20 or more, according to the study published on Wednesday (7 January) in scientific journal the Lancet.

The rising figures put into question the WHO target to wipe out the disease in Europe by 2010.

"If we don't achieve 95 percent coverage, it seems like we will never achieve the goal" of eradicating measles in Europe, said Mark Muscat, an epidemiologist at the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, who led the study of 32 countries, according to Bloomberg.

"It has not only to be reached, but be maintained. The minute it slips away, we are at risk of having susceptible pools of people for the disease," he added.

Keep vaccinating

Measles is a highly contagious disease transmitted by droplets from the nose, mouth or throat of the infected. It mostly affects children, and is particularly dangerous to people with weakened immune systems.

It is "erroneously thought of to be a mild disease but it can cause complications, including fatal ones," Mr Muscat said, Deutsche Welle reports.

Although it can easily be prevented by a vaccination, usually given in early childhood, measles still kills as many as 250,000 people per year, notably in poor countries.

In that respect, health officials and scientists insist the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine should be widely used, and dismiss safety fears and claims that it could lead to other long-term health problems.

"Our job is to make sure people understand the vaccine is safe even though it has received bad publicity, and we should regain confidence in the MMR vaccine," Mr Muscat said.

For their part, Dr Jacques Kremer and Dr Claude Muller, from the Luxembourg-based WHO Regional Reference Laboratory for Measles and Rubella, have underlined the responsibility of "rich countries" towards poorer ones, saying more vaccinations would also avoid spreading the disease outside Europe, the BBC reports.

"Rich countries need to be responsible for avoiding cases by implementation of high vaccine coverage, to make it the privilege of resource-poor countries not to worry about reintroductions from Europe," they said.