The Buzz | Europe sees sharp rise in measles: 41,000 cases, 37 deaths

Global health officials called for increased vaccination efforts amid burgeoning rates of measles infection in Europe. More people in Europe contracted the potentially deadly virus in the first six months of 2018 than in all of last year, the Geneva-based World Health Organization said yesterday. The first-half total was more than seven times the cases seen in all of 2016. At least 37 people have died.

Concerns about vaccine-preventable infectious disease are intensifying as immunization rates lag in some areas, and some parents continue to cite concerns about links to side effects that have been debunked by studies. While European childhood vaccination rates increased slightly to 90 percent in 2017, large disparities remain at the local level, according to the WHO.

Zsuzsanna Jakab, the agency’s regional European director, said in a statement that easles can be stopped if “everyone plays their part: to immunize their children, themselves, their patients, their populations – and also to remind others that vaccination saves lives.”