As Samoa battles a deadly outbreak of measles, the World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed worldwide deaths from the viral disease are skyrocketing.
Figures released on Friday show approximately 140,000 people died of the disease in 2018 - most of them under five years of age. That's up 27 percent on 2017, and 2019 is expected to be far worse. Many of 2018's outbreaks persisted into 2019, and WHO data suggests infection rates have tripled this year.
"The fact that any child dies from a vaccine-preventable disease like measles is frankly an outrage and a collective failure to protect the world's most vulnerable children," said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus, WHO director-general. "To save lives, we must ensure everyone can benefit from vaccines - which means investing in immunization and quality health care as a right for all."
Dozens have died in the latest outbreak in Samoa, which has been fuelled by low vaccination rates and alternative healers peddling fake treatments.
"We're backsliding," said Kate O'Brien, WHO director of immunization, vaccines and biologicals. "The reason we're having increases in cases and deaths of measles, has to do fundamentally with people not getting vaccinated.
"We have a safe, effective measles vaccine that's been used for 50 years. Hundreds of millions of people have been immunised safely with this vaccine, and now fewer people are getting vaccinated that need to be vaccinated to prevent cases and outbreaks."
The hardest-hit countries in 2018 were Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Madagascar, Somalia and Ukraine, which between them had almost half of all cases worldwide. But wealthier countries have seen the number of infections grow too, partly because of the rising anti-vaccination movement, which the WHO recently declared one of the top 10 threats to health worldwide.
"We're seeing a surge in misinformation around vaccines in general, and in particular around the measles vaccine," said O'Brien. "Families, parents are really vulnerable to misinformation. It's really difficult to discern - if you're not somebody who understands where the information is coming from - accurate scientific credible information from misinformation."
O'Brien said the WHO is working with social media companies to try and halt the spread of nonsense, for example fraudulent claims vaccines are linked with autism.
Albania, Czechia, Greece and the United Kingdom all lost their official 'measles-free' status in 2019, meaning the virus - previously eliminated - is now in transmission within their borders. If New Zealand can't eliminate the virus by March 2020, it too will lose its measles-free status, says vaccinologist Dr Helen Petousis. Even North Korea is measles-free, the WHO's latest report notes.
Not every measles infection is reported to the WHO, which relies on statistical modelling to generates its numbers. But real-time figures show 2018 was the worst year since 2011, and up 167 percent since 2016.
In November, scientists revealed how measles can have an effect on a victim's health for decades, even if they survive what some previously considered a mild disease. The virus can effectively wipe the body's immune system clean, exposing the victim to diseases they previously had an immunity against.
"We've had a safe and effective measles vaccine for over 50 years," said Robert Linkins, chair of the Measles & Rubella Initiative, which has funded nearly 3 billion vaccines since 2000.
"These estimates remind us that every child, everywhere needs - and deserves - this life-saving vaccine. We must turn this trend around and stop these preventable deaths by improving measles vaccine access and coverage."
Despite the recent uptick, reported cases fell 59 percent between 2000 and 2018 and deaths fell 73 percent. In that time, it's estimated around 23.2 million deaths were avoided thanks to mass vaccination campaigns.
