A total of 229,068 cases of measles were reported in 2018, nearly double the number of infections contracted in the previous year, the WHO has said. The World Health Organization (WHO) has appealed to the Member States to close gaps in vaccine coverage. In 2018, Africa saw 33,879 measles infections; of these, 4,391 were from Madagascar alone, where 922 deaths have been reported in an ongoing outbreak that began last October. The Americas recorded nearly 17,000 cases of measles in 2018, with the Eastern Mediterranean, just under 22,000. Before the introduction of the measles vaccine in 1963, the outbreaks and epidemics occurred every two to three years, causing an estimated 2.6 million deaths every year.

Source: Hindustan Times February 18, 2019 03:56 UTC