The
global annual measles mortality reached historic low with vaccination expanding
steadily, the World Health Organisation (WHO)
said in a statement. Statistics
estimated that the annual measles deaths dropped 78 percent to 122,000 in 2012,
comparing to the contagious disease claimed 562,000 lives in 2000 globally. "We reached record low levels of measles
cases with 77 percent decline from 2000 to 2012," Robert Perry, WHO
medical officer, told a press conference.
He
added these gains are a result of "increasing vaccine coverage".
Since 2000, the expanding vaccine coverage
benefited more than one
billion children worldwide. In 2012, the global routine measles immunisation
coverage rose to 84 percent, and as many as 145 million children were
vaccinated against measles. Despite the
impressive progress towards measles elimination, WHO still warned that measles
continued to be a global threat. "We made some progress against those
goals, we still have ways to go," said Perry. In 2012, Africa, southeast Asia, Europe,
eastern Mediterranean, and western Pacific region witnessed the large measles
outbreaks. Over 10,000 reported cases occurred in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, India, Indonesia, Ukraine and Somalia.
