Measles deaths have plummeted worldwide since the turn of the century, but health officials warn that there are troubling signs that it is now resurging.
Measles cases surged by 47 per cent in Europe and Central Asia last year, due largely to falling vaccination rates, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The warning comes amid troubling signs that measles is resurging globally, with 21st-century gains in curbing infections and deaths beginning to slip away.
In 2024, an estimated 95,000 people worldwide died from measles, mostly children under the age of five. That is down from 780,000 deaths in 2000 – but the WHO said “every death from a disease that could be prevented with a highly effective and low-cost vaccine is unacceptable”.
Globally, measles vaccination campaigns have saved nearly 59 million lives since the turn of the century, the WHO said.
Yet today, measles cases are once again rising worldwide. There were an estimated 11 million infections last year, which is about 800,000 more than the pre-pandemic era.
Earlier this year, the agency said there were more than 120,000 measles cases in Europe and Central Asia in 2024 – the highest level in more than 25 years.
There were major measles outbreaks in 59 countries last year, nearly triple the number reported in 2021, the WHO said.
“Measles is the world's most contagious virus, and these data show once again how it will exploit any gap in our collective defences against it,” WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
The agency pointed to the growing number of people opting out of vaccination as a key driver of outbreaks. Measles is so contagious that health officials say at least 95 per cent of people must be immunised to protect people against the virus.
Globally, an estimated 84 per cent of children received their first dose of the measles vaccine last year, while 76 per cent received the second, WHO data shows. That’s up slightly from the year before, with two million additional children receiving the jab.
However, it left more than 30 million children “under-protected” against measles in 2024, mostly in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean region.
Outbreaks can occur even in countries with high overall immunisation rates if they have pockets of unvaccinated people.
The WHO warned that measles is often the first disease to reemerge when vaccination rates wane, saying that the growing number of outbreaks points to flaws in health systems and immunisation programmes around the world.
Notably, children who survive measles are at higher risk of serious health complications such as pneumonia, blindness, and encephalitis, which can cause brain swelling and damage.
The WHO called for more funding and renewed efforts to eliminate measles worldwide.
“Measles does not respect borders, but when every child in every community is vaccinated against it, costly outbreaks can be avoided, lives can be saved, and this disease can be eliminated from entire nations,” Tedros said.
