Measles cases have doubled across Europe and are at the highest number for 25 years, with people in the UK warned about how important it is to be vaccinated against the virus
Brits are being warned of how important it is to have a measles vaccine with ‘one in five children’ hospitalised from the virus as cases in Europe spike.
There were 127,350 measles cases reported in Europe and Central Asia in 2024, double the number of cases reported the previous year and the highest number since 1997, according to an analysis by the World Health Organization and Unicef.
Measles is among the world’s most infectious diseases and is spread by an airborne virus. Unicef said that about 40% of measles infections in Europe and Central Asia were in children under five and that more than half of all people sickened by measles had to be hospitalised.
Yet two doses of the measles vaccine is estimated to be 97% effective in preventing the disease, which typically infects the respiratory system and causes symptoms including fever, cough, runny nose and a rash. In serious cases, measles can cause pneumonia, encephalitis, dehydration, and blindness.
“Measles is back, and it’s a wake-up call,” Dr. Han Kluge, WHO’s Europe director, said in a statement. “Without high vaccination rates, there is no health security.” Scientists estimate that more than 95% of the population needs to be immunized to prevent outbreaks.
After a drop in immunisation coverage during the coronavirus pandemic, measles cases surged in 2023 and 2024, with vaccination rates in numerous countries still lower than what they were before Covid-19 hit. British officials stated last month there have been more than 200 reported cases in the UK and that many more are expected.
While Dr Doug Brown, Chief Executive, British Society for Immunology, said: “It is extremely worrying to see such high numbers of measles cases across the European Region. Measles is a very nasty disease that causes serious illness, including hospitalisation and, in extreme situations, death. In recent outbreaks in England, one in five children who caught measles were hospitalised.
“The measles virus is highly contagious and spreads easily from person-to-person. The good news is that in the UK we have access to a safe and effective vaccine — the MMR vaccine — that provides long-term protection against measles. However, as measles is so infectious, uptake of this vaccine needs to be very high, at 95%, to stop the disease circulating within our communities.
“We have long known that vaccine uptake rates for the MMR vaccine in both the UK and Europe are lower than this required level. For example, in England in 2023-24, only 83.9% of children had received both doses of the MMR vaccine by the required timepoint.”
Dr Ben Kasstan-Dabush, from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said people can forget to a jab as the vaccination programmes are so successful. “Measles cases across the UK are rising, as we’re also seeing across other parts of Europe, Central Asia and through new outbreaks in the US. Measles is extremely infectious. Before routine vaccination began, England and Wales saw large outbreaks with peaks of 600,000 cases in some years,” he said.
“Vaccination programmes in the UK and globally have been so successful that it can be easy to forget why we still need them and many people may not have a memory of the consequences of infections like measles.
“Public health must constantly engage with families and communities through outreach, but that can be difficult when resources are increasingly stretched. But the costs of reducing public health outreach speak for themselves, and history tells us that even a small decline in vaccine uptake can have devastating consequences.
“In 2024 there were 2,911 laboratory confirmed measles cases in England, the highest number of cases recorded annually since 2012. The majority of measles cases we’re seeing in the UK and elsewhere are in young children and predominantly among those who are unvaccinated.
“Being vaccinated is the best way to protect you, your child, your family and people who aren’t able to get the vaccine like young babies, from getting sick with measles or spreading it to other people. It’s never too late to get vaccinated. If you have questions, don’t know whether you’ve already had a vaccine or want to find out where to get a vaccine, the best advice is to talk to your GP.”