Progress Toward Regional Measles Elimination — Worldwide, 2000–2021

Seven days in medicine: 23-29 November 2022

“…Measles vaccination coverage worldwide has fallen steadily since the beginning of the covid pandemic, with a record of nearly 40 million children missing a vaccine dose in 2021. A joint report highlighted4 that 25 million children missed their first dose and 14.7 million missed their second. (Full story doi:10.1136/bmj.o2844)…”

Genetic Characteristics of Measles Viruses Isolated in Taiwan between 2015 and 2020

“…Measles is also feasible to eradicate by meeting three biological criteria, including humans being the only pathogen reservoir, having an effective vaccine available at reasonable cost and having accurate diagnostic tests [ 3 ]. Countries in all six WHO regions adopted goals for measles elimination by or before 2020 [ 4 ]. Measles elimination is defined as the absence of endemic measles virus transmission in a region or other defined geographical area for ≥12 months in the presence of a well-performing surveillance system [ 5 ].…”

“…To verify the interruption of endemic measles virus transmission, viral sequence analysis combined with case investigations are needed to document the absence of endemic genotypes. In Taiwan, the measles cases decreased since 2015, and were the lowest in 2017 with only 6 cases confirmed, but it rebounded to 140 cases in 2019 as the worldwide trend [ 4 ]. The coverage rate of the first dose measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine in children aged 12 months old reached over 98% between 2015 and 2020, and the second dose MMR that was given to children before entrance to elementary school was improved from 93.42% in 2015 to 96.77% in 2020.…”

“…Nearly 74% cases were from northern Taiwan, and those from central and southern Taiwan accounted for 15.5% and 10.5%, respectively. In total, 24 MeV genotypes were identified, and the number of genotypes detected per year decreased from 13 in 2002 to three in 2020, a sign of progress toward elimination [ 4 ]. To discriminate between the most frequently detected measles strain of genotypes D8 and B3, a “named strain” based on the identity of N-450 sequences was introduced to better reflect currently circulating viruses.…”

Decline in reported measles cases in Italy in the COVID-19 era, January 2020 – July 2022: The need to prevent a resurgence upon lifting non-pharmaceutical pandemic measures

“…To date, no WHO Region has achieved and sustained elimination. The Americas achieved verification of measles elimination in 2016 but endemic transmission was subsequently reestablished in Venezuela (2016) and Brazil (2018) [2] . In the European Region, as of the end of 2019, endemic transmission of measles was still ongoing in 24 of 53 Member States (MS), including in Italy [3] , [4] .…”