translated from Spanish: Measles re-rotains in four European countries: they had the disease eradicated

WHO, through the European Regional Commission for Verification for the Elimination of Measles and Rubella (RVC), delisted the United Kingdom, Greece, Albania and the Czech Republic from the status of measles-free countries n. The decision was taken following the preparation of a report containing data from the 53 member states of the WHO European region.
A country is recognized as measles-free when there is no continuous transmission of the disease for 12 months. When they lost their status, the Uk, Greece, Albania and the Czech Republic join 12 other European countries where the disease is endemic.
Measles cases have seen an exponential increase in Europe. According to the report published by WHO, 25,863 cases were reported in 2017, in 2018 84,462 and in the first half of this year alone 89,994 cases were recorded.
“If high immunization rates are not achieved in each community, and these rates are maintained, both children and adults will suffer unnecessarily and some will unfortunately die,” said RVC President Gonter Pfaff.
Just as the record of measles cases has been on the rise, so has the number of deaths. For 2017, 42 deaths were identified, for the past year 74 and for the first half of 2019 37 deaths related to the disease were reported.
Under this picture, WHO adopted emergency grade 2 in May in response to the circulation of measles on European territory. “This allows WHO to mobilize the human and financial resources needed to support affected countries,” the report states.
Measles is a highly contagious disease, the spread of which is spread through fluids expelled by sneezing. If not prevented, or if not treated properly, it can lead to brain inflammation, meningitis, blindness, liver problems or other complications.
In Chile, the disease is eradicated. However, Health Minister Jaime Mañalich warned of a possible measles outbreak in national territory. His critics pointed them to the anti-vaccine movement.
“We are ready, the product of these anti-vaccine groups (…) to reach vaccination rates that put us at obvious risk, for example, of having a measles outbreak, a disease that is eradicated in Chile,” he said.

Original source in Spanish

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