Measles deaths have fallen sharply by 74% globally this decade thanks to a concerted effort to vaccinate children in Africa and other hard-hit regions, according to health officials.
Measles deaths worldwide fell from an estimated 750,000 in 2000 – the year before the vaccination effort began – to 197,000 in 2007, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners in the effort reported.
In Africa, where measles had claimed its biggest toll, deaths fell by 89%, from an estimated 395,000 in 2000 to 45,000 last year, officials said.
About 90% of the worldwide measles deaths claimed children aged under 5, officials said.
The data is published in the latest edition of WHO's Weekly Epidemiological Record.
More than 600 million children in more than 60 countries have been vaccinated against measles since 2001 under the program launched by the American Red Cross, the US government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United Nations Foundation, UNICEF and the WHO.
The vaccination efforts, which cost more than $600 million, have saved about 3.6 million lives, officials said.
United Nations Foundation children's health official Andrea Gay said: “We're incredibly encouraged by this level of success. We know what countries can achieve. But as deaths decrease, people often tend to move on to other things thinking the problem is solved, which it is not.”
Experts say children should get two doses of the vaccine, but Ms Gay said that although they were considered routine vaccinations for children in wealthy countries, millions were not getting them in sub-Saharan Africa and other poor regions of the world.
WHO has set a global target of a 90% reduction in worldwide measles deaths by 2010 compared to 2000.
Worldwide, the number of reported measles cases fell from 852,937 in 2000 to 279,006 in 2007 – a 67% decrease.
The bulk of measles deaths are no longer in Africa thanks to the vaccination efforts, shifting instead to a region in Asia including India, according to officials.
In developed countries, four decades of vaccination have driven measles levels to extremely low levels. In the US, measles is no longer endemic, with ongoing transmission of the virus declared eliminated in 2000.
However, authorities have tracked upswings in measles cases in the UK, US, and elsewhere because some people object to vaccinations for religious or other reasons.
Source: Reuters Health