Epidemiology of measles

Bulgaria, Latvia and France are the most vaccine-sceptic countries in the European Union, a survey suggests, reports EuroNews. 

Fewer than 70% of respondents in all three countries consider innoculations safe, according to the Brussels-commissioned poll.

A measles outbreak that has infected more than 3,200 people in Greece since May last year seems to be on the wane, as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has reported no new cases over the past week.

Cases of measles in Europe have hit a record high, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

More than 41,000 people have been infected in the first six months of 2018, leading to 37 deaths.

Last year there were 23,927 cases and the year before 5,273. Experts blame this surge in infections on a drop in the number of people being vaccinated.

The World Health Organisation, WHO, has listed Serbia among the seven European countries hardest hit by measles during the first half of this year, with 14 deaths recorded so far.

Ukraine tops the list, with over 23,000 people affected, accounting for over half of the regional total, WHO's report published on Monday shows.

What the World Health Organization has referred to as "a dramatic increase" in cases of measles in Europe has not left Greece untouched, though the rate of cases in the country has slowed in recent months. 

Health authorities in Thessaloniki announced on Thursday that an 18-year-old man became the fourth person to die of measles in the past year on Tuesday after succumbing to respiratory complications while receiving treatment at the northern port city's Papanikolaou Hospital.

Measles still claims young lives in Romania, where nearly 40 children have died in an outbreak that many blame on parents being misled by scare stories that vaccinating them is dangerous.

The number of measles cases reported to the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (KEELPNO) is on the rise, with 500 cases recorded over the last month, 60 of which were in the last week. Since the outbreak of the epidemic in May 2017, 2,500 patients have been affected, KEELPNO said.

The number of people killed by measles in Romania reached 46 people after a 9-month-old baby from Constanza died today. The National Center for Infectious Diseases Surveillance reported that the baby was not vaccinated.

Prva TV reported this, adding that the child could not be vaccinated against the disease due to an auto-immune illness, and had spent the last three months at the Institute for Health Protection of Mother and Child in Belgrade.

The girl is the third child that died after contracting measles, and the 13th victim in all.