WHO warns of measles outbreaks in Europe, Africa and Latin

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned today that so far this year there have been major outbreaks of measles in Europe and Africa and the Americas, with a total of 157,181 cases.

WHO spokesman Robert Perry said at a news conference in Geneva that in Europe 40 of the 53 states reported 26 025 cases between January and July, with France leading the way with 14,025.

In the whole of Europe, ten of these cases were lethal, with six deaths in France, one in Germany, Romania, Macedonia and the United Kingdom.

Perry noted that most countries are responding to the situation with changes in the vaccination program, as is the case of France, which has introduced two free vaccine against measles immunization campaign has begun in schools.

In Africa, the largest outbreak of measles has occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a total of 103,000 cases in the first half of the year and about 1,100 related deaths.

Other affected countries in the continent have been Nigeria (17,428 cases), Zambia (6295), Ethiopia (1408) and Kenya (1995).

With regard to America, where the last outbreak of this disease was recorded in 2002, Perry said that the outbreaks are due to virus importation from other regions.

The largest was in Quebec City, Canada, where there were 742 cases, 89 of whom required hospitalization, although there were no related deaths.

The other outbreaks have been registered in the U.S., with 213 cases, Ecuador (41), Brazil (18), Colombia (7), Mexico (3) and Chile (6).

Perry said most of these outbreaks have been caused by spread of virus from Europe, except United States and Chile, which spread from Malaysia, and Ecuador, who came from Kenya.

WHO spokesman said that measles is a highly contagious disease that can cause serious complications, even death, but is easily prevented with vaccines up to age 15.

He also noted that outbreaks of measles in countries where people travel abroad with ease, as is the case in Europe, have spread in recent times to places never been recorded this disease, such as America or Africa.