Deaths from measles worldwide have almost halved in five years thanks to a concerted vaccination campaign focusing on Africa. 鈥淥ur next target is a 90 per cent reduction by 2010, with 1999 as the baseline,鈥� a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization told New 杏吧原创. Progress in sub-Saharan Africa was most impressive, with deaths down 60 per cent.
Half a billion children were vaccinated during the campaign, which has cut the numbers of measles deaths from 871,000 in 1999 to 454,000 in 2004, the latest year for which information is available.
In parts of the developed world, however, complacency seems to be setting in. In the UK there has been a retreat from measles vaccination following claims in the late 1990s, subsequently discredited, that the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine can cause autism. In 1995, before the MMR scare, there were 47 cases of measles in England and Wales; in 2003 there were 335.
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The most recent figures from the UK鈥檚 Health Protection Agency reveal 23 cases in England between April and June 2005, up from 17 in the previous three months. Of the 23 cases, 15 were in London, which is known to be a hotspot for non-vaccination. None of the cases had received the MMR vaccine, and one had been given the single measles vaccine shot demanded by parents who distrust the triple vaccine.
