The World Health Organisation (WHO) expressed concern Tuesday about the rapid spread of measles, with over 306,000 cases registered worldwide last year, a 79 percent rise from 2022.
The World Health Organisation expressed concern Tuesday about the rapid spread of measles, with more than 306,000 cases registered worldwide last year, a 79% rise from 2022.
She emphasised, however, that measles cases are typically greatly underreported, implying that the true amount is far higher.
Every year, the UN Health Agency uses modelling approaches to gather more precise numbers. Its most recent projection predicted 9.2 million infections and 136,216 measles-related deaths in 2022.
Although such modelling for the prior year has not yet been done, Crowcroft stated that 2022 has already seen a 43 percent increase in deaths compared to the previous year.
Given the rising case count, “we would anticipate an increase in deaths in 2023 as well,” she told reporters in Geneva via video link from Cairo.
