Infants younger than 12 months are most at risk from low measles vaccination rates.

Preventable deaths are on the rise in the European Union amid low vaccine uptake, putting young children most at risk, Europe’s disease agency has warned.

Officials from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) revealed new data Monday confirming an upward trend in measles and pertussis — or whooping cough — cases last year.

At least five people in EU countries died of measles between March 2023 and the end of February 2024, all in Romania, while data showed a more than 10-fold increase in whooping cough cases in the EU in 2023 and 2024 compared to the previous two years.

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“It is disheartening to see that despite decades of a well-documented safety and effectiveness track record of vaccines, countries in the EU/EEA and globally still face outbreaks of several vaccine-preventable diseases,” said Andrea Ammon, ECDC director.

  • vividspecter@lemm.eeEnglish
    8·
    7 months ago

    Even before they left the EU I always considered the UK as different from mainland Europe. And stuff like this is a big part of it, along with culturally being more similar to North America and Australia.