Four out of the five countries that accounted for almost half the world’s measles cases last year — Congo, Liberia, Madagascar and Somalia — are in that region. Government authorities on the island nation said there have so far been 4,357 measles cases in this outbreak, which was officially declared Oct. 16. If the United States had Samoa’s current level of measles cases, there would now be more than 7 million infected Americans. ADNow, in response, Samoa is starting to require vaccinations and to push back more forcefully against anti-vaxxers. There were also some new countries that had eliminated measles by the end of last year, including Austria, Oman, Timor-Leste, Singapore, Switzerland and Bahrain.

Source: Washington Post December 06, 2019 17:19 UTC