Measles outbreak in Europe,France worst affected

Europe,especially France,has been hit by a major outbreak of measles,which the UN health agency is blaming on the failure to vaccinate all children. The World Health Organisation said Thursday that France had 4,937 reported cases of measles between January and March compared with 5,090 cases during all of 2010. In all,more than 6,500 cases […]

Europe,especially France,has been hit by a major outbreak of measles,which the UN health agency is blaming on the failure to vaccinate all children.

The World Health Organisation said Thursday that France had 4,937 reported cases of measles between January and March compared with 5,090 cases during all of 2010. In all,more than 6,500 cases have been reported in 33 European nations.

This is a lot of cases,to put it mildly. In past years weve had very few cases, said Rebecca Martin,head of WHOs office in Copenhagen for vaccine-preventable diseases and

immunisation.

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Theres been a buildup of children who have not been immunised over the years, she said. Its almost like a threshold. When you have enough people who have not been immunised,then outbreaks can occur.

WHO has found that young people between 10 and 19 have not been getting immunised as they should,she said. To prevent measles outbreaks,officials need to vaccinate about 90 per cent of the population. But vaccination rates across Europe have been patchy in recent years.

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