The global threat of measles has become worse after 22 million babies missed their vaccinations because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Wednesday. Measles is one of the most contagious viruses known and still kills more than 60,000 people a year, mostly young children. “Large and disruptive measles outbreaks in 2020, however, suggest that measles transmission was underreported,” the CDC team wrote in the agency’s weekly report on death and disease, the MMWR. “Over 22 million infants missed their first dose of measles vaccine — 3 million more than in 2019 and the largest annual increase in over 20 years,” the CDC said. “Even before the pandemic, we were seeing how even small pockets of low measles immunization coverage could fuel unprecedented outbreaks, including in countries where the disease had been considered eradicated.

Source: CNN November 10, 2021 18:29 UTC