Measles cases in the European region doubled in 2024 to a more than 25-year-high, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF have warned in what is being called a “wake-up call”. Children under five accounted for more than 40% of the 127,350 cases reported last year in the region, which is the highest number since 1997. A total of 38 deaths had been reported up to March 6, 2025.
The European region comprises 53 countries in Europe and Central Asia as the two global bodies appealed for urgent action to increase vaccination levels. UK officials said last month there had been more than 200 reported cases in the country and that many more were expected. The nation with the most infections last year was Romania which had 30,692, followed by Kazakhstan, with 28,147.
“Measles is back, and it’s a wake-up call. Without high vaccination rates, there is no health security,” Dr. Hans P. Kluge, WHO’s regional director for Europe, said in a statement.
Over recent months, the spotlight has been on cases of measles in the United States, where there have been two deaths recently as the disease – which was considered “eliminated” in the US in 2000 – spreads there and across Canada, too.
This week alone, Texas and New Mexico have seen 28 more infections this week, taking the total to 256.
Measles cases had been declining since 1997, but the trend reversed in 2018-19 and cases rose significantly in 2023-24 “following a backsliding in immunisation coverage during the Covid-19 pandemic”.
“Vaccination rates in many countries are yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, increasing the risk of outbreaks,” WHO and UNICEF said in a joint statement.
The WHO said on Thursday that less than 80% of eligible children in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Romania had their first dose of the measles vaccine in 2023 – far below the 95% coverage rate required to prevent an outbreak.
It stresses vaccination remains the “best line of defense against the virus,” saying that a vaccinated person exposed to measles has at least a 97% percent chance of not contracting it.
Estimates from 2023 show that only four countries – Hungary, Malta, Portugal and Slovakia – had met the 95% threshold for vaccination to prevent an outbreak, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said on Tuesday.