New Delhi: India ranked fourth among 194 countries in the number of measles cases registered between July 2018 and June 2019, according to latest data released by the World Health Organization (WHO).
New information released by WHO Tuesday says there have been 39,299 cases of measles in the last 12 months in India. The country, however, has the lowest measles incidence rate per million among the top 10 countries — which is less than 30 per cent.
Madagascar (150,976), Ukraine (84,394) and Philippines (45,847) are the top three countries on this list.
The WHO data has also spotted an encouraging trend for India — the number of children suffering from measles has come down in the last five years. In 2019, the country has reported 24,076 confirmed cases so far — against 80,306 incidents in 2014.
Last year, India registered 69,391 cases.
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Measles cases have tripled globally: WHO
Releasing its report in Geneva, the WHO also said there has been a threefold rise in the number of cases reported in the first six months this year when compared to last year’s data of the same period.
“In the first six months of 2019, reported measles cases are the highest they have been in any year since 2006, with outbreaks straining health care systems, and leading to serious illness, disability, and deaths in many parts of the world,” the WHO said in its press statement.
It further said some of the major outbreaks were reported from Angola, Cameroon, Chad, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Philippines, South Sudan and Thailand.
The United States, in the meanwhile, has reported its highest measles case count in 25 years.
It is to also note that this is preliminary data based on reports submitted by countries to the WHO. Many nations are still reporting cases and discarding some based on laboratory results.
What is measles?
According to the WHO, measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus that results in fever and body rashes. It can also lead to blindness, encephalitis or death. The disease affects mostly children under five years of age.
Despite the availability of preventive vaccines, more than 1 lakh people had succumbed to measles in 2017 globally. At the same time, nearly 2.1 crore people were saved by these vaccines in 17 years, starting 2000.
According to researchers, India still has a long way to go to achieve WHO’s deadline of 95 per cent vaccination coverage till 2020.
“India was one of the last countries to introduce MCV2 in the national immunisation schedule and initially, this was implemented only in a few states…Although India has taken several initiatives to protect its children and made significant progress in decreasing measles incidence and related mortality and morbidity. However, the pace of this progress will have to be greatly enhanced, if our country has to eliminate measles by 2020,” said a paper authored by Dr S.B. Bavdekar and Dr S Karande, pediatricians in Mumbai.
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