Measles has killed 35 people in the European region last year alone

In Portugal, a 17-year-old girl died of measles. The country with the highest number of deaths due to the disease since 1 January 2017 is Romania. Altogether, there were 35 deaths in the European region.

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Measles caused 35 deaths last year, including one in Portugal, in the European region considered by the World Health Organization, which includes about 50 countries. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) note released on Monday, in those 53 countries there were more than 20,000 cases of measles in 2017, 35 of them deadly.

Last week, the European Center for Disease Control reported 14,000 cases of measles in 30 European countries last year, tripling the number of cases of measles in 2016.

"Each new person affected by measles in Europe reminds us that unvaccinated children and adults, regardless of where they live, remain at risk of contracting the disease and passing it on to others who may not yet be vaccinated. More than 20,000 cases of measles and 35 lives lost in 2017 are a tragedy we can not accept, "says WHO Regional Director for Europe, Zsuzsanna Jakab, in a statement released by the institution.

The WHO recalls that measles outbreaks reported last year affected one in four countries in the European region, with outbreaks reported in 15 of the 53 countries covered by WHO Europe. Health ministers from 11 countries will meet on Tuesday in Montenegro to discuss the issue of vaccines and discuss ways to achieve high vaccination rates.

The European country with more cases reported from January 1, 2017 to date remains Romania, followed by Italy, Ukraine and Greece. In 2017, Portugal had two simultaneous outbreaks of measles (in a total of 29 cases), which resulted in the death of a 17-year-old girl.

Measles is a serious disease for which there is a vaccine, however, the European Center for Disease Control estimates that there is a high incidence of cases in children under one year of age who are still too young to receive the first dose of the vaccine. vaccine. Hence, it reinforces the importance of all other groups being vaccinated so that they do not catch or transmit the disease. According to the 2017 data, more than 87% of people who took measles were not vaccinated.