‘Viruses do not respect borders’: Measles cases double in Europe
Key takeaways:
- Measles cases in Europe doubled to more than 127,000 in 2024.
- This was the highest number of cases since 1997.
An analysis by WHO and UNICEF revealed that measles cases topped 127,350 across Europe in 2024, doubling the cases from 2023 and marking the highest number of measles cases reported since 1997.
Of these cases, more than half required hospitalization, and preliminary data provided by WHO and UNICEF show 38 deaths were reported.
“Viruses do not respect borders, and the measles virus in particular is extremely contagious,” Dragan Jankovic, MD, technical officer for WHO’s Vaccine-preventable Diseases and Immunization Program, told Healio. “Every measles outbreak is an opportunity for the virus to spread within and beyond a country or region.”
According to the report, measles cases in the European region had been declining since 1997, at which point cases topped 216,000, and had gotten as low as 4,440 cases in 2016.
However, the agencies noted there was a resurgence in 2018 and 2019 when cases reached 89,000 and 106,000, respectively. Around this time, a 31% surge in measles cases was also reported worldwide, with outbreaks being reported in every region of the globe.
After this surge, the European Regional Verification Commission for Measles and Rubella Elimination reported that four European nations — Albania, the Czech Republic, Greece and the United Kingdom — lost their measles elimination status.
Since then, measles cases continued to rise throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from 2023 showed an estimated 20% increase in measles cases globally, with a 200% increase in cases in Europe alone.
“This is largely attributed to a backsliding in immunization coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Fatima Cengic, UNICEF immunization specialist for Europe and Central Asia, told Healio.
“During these years, health services, including routine vaccination, were severely disrupted. At the same time lockdowns and overwhelmed primary health care systems contributed to a decrease in vaccine demand,” Cengic said.
According to WHO and UNICEF, vaccination rates in many countries have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.
Jankovic added that all countries — even those with that do have high overall coverage — have “pockets of under-vaccination” that create opportunity for measles to spread once introduced into the community.
Additionally, he explained that an increased number of children — who Cengic said are the most at risk for “debilitating health consequences and death” — missed routine vaccinations during the pandemic, leaving many susceptible to potentially fatal vaccine-preventable diseases. According to UNICEF, 43% of measles cases in 2024 in the European region were among children aged younger than 5 years and 87% were not vaccinated or were lacking immunization data.
“The only way to protect people is through vaccination,” Cengic said. “Vaccines are safe and effective, and they have saved millions of lives.”
Moving forward, she said it is “imperative that countries analyze the root causes of outbreaks, address weaknesses in their health systems, and strategically utilize epidemiological data to identify and close coverage gaps.”
For countries with ongoing outbreaks — such as the U.S., where an ongoing measles outbreak has left hundreds infected and at least two dead, including a child — WHO and UNICEF are calling for governments to intensify case finding and contact tracing and to conduct emergency vaccination campaigns to help address inequitable access to vaccines.
“WHO’s message to the general public is clear: measles is a dangerous, highly contagious disease that is entirely vaccine preventable,” Jankovic said. “Every individual and authorities in every country have a role to play in stopping the spread of the virus, through vaccination, awareness raising, high-quality surveillance, timely outbreak response, isolation of cases, contact tracing, etc.”
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