Research finds drop in number of measles cases in the EU/EEA since March 2018

Reviewed by James Ives, M.Psych. (Editor)Sep 21 2018

During the month of July, a total of 758 cases of measles were reported across seventeen countries in the EU/EEA, which is a decrease from the 1054 cases reported during the month of June.

"Since March, the number of measles cases in the EU/EEA has dropped steadily, which is of course a positive development" says Tarik Derrough, ECDC senior expert on vaccine-preventable diseases. "However, measles continues to spread across Europe because vaccination coverage in most European countries remains sub-optimal. Only four EU/EEA countries reported figures of at least 95% vaccination coverage, for both doses of measles-containing vaccine for 2017. If the goal of eliminating measles is to be reached, vaccination coverage for children and adults needs to increase in a number of countries."

Looking at the situation over the past year (1 August 2017 to 31 July 2018), 14 118 cases of measles were reported across 30 EU/EEA Member States. The most cases were reported by Greece (3 224), Italy (2 873), France (2 794) and United Kingdom (1 724), accounting respectively for 23%, 20%, 20% and 12% of all cases reported by EU/EEA countries.

Of 14 117 cases with known age, 4 250 (30%) were children less than five years of age, while 6 115 (50%) were aged 15 years or older.