The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has sent out a warning telling the countries of the Americas that they need to update their response plans to stop the measles virus from spreading again. This is because fewer children are getting vaccinated, which makes it more likely that this disease will spread.
“Vaccination and epidemiological surveillance of diseases that can be prevented by vaccines are important health services that should not be stopped,” PAHO says in the alert, which came out yesterday.
The Organization’s Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on vaccines says that the chance of outbreaks of diseases that can be prevented with vaccines is at its highest level in the last 30 years. PAHO thinks that more than 1.7 million children in 28 countries and territories of the Americas will not have had their first dose of measles vaccine by their first birthday in 2021.
In 2021, 85% of people in a region got their first dose of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Only six countries reached the level of 95% or more that was recommended to keep these diseases from coming back, and ten countries reported coverage of less than 80%.
Measles is a very dangerous and contagious virus that can be prevented with safe and effective vaccines. Between 2000 and 2018, the measles vaccine kept about 23.2 million people from dying around the world.
In 2016, the Americas were said to be free of measles. But because the virus is still spreading in other parts of the world, countries in the region reported more imported cases between 2017 and 2019. The biggest outbreaks happened in Brazil and Venezuela, where the virus is still spreading endemically.
Since then, the number of confirmed cases has gone down, and by 2022, only six countries in the region—Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Paraguay, and the United States—had imported cases of measles, thanks to measures put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
PAHO recommends that parents, guardians, or other caregivers make sure their children get two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines to stop outbreaks and protect them from serious complications like pneumonia, which can kill babies and young children.
