Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Measles Cases And Deaths Jump Worldwide By Alarming Rates, WHO Says
There was a 鈥渟taggering鈥 annual rise in measles cases and deaths in 2022, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Cases jumped by 18% to an estimated 9 million, and deaths to 136,000, mostly among children, the health agencies said in a joint statement on Thursday. There were large or disruptive outbreaks in 37 countries last year, the majority in Africa, compared to 22 in 2021. (Rigby, 11/16)
The problem is mounting, with year-to-date numbers for 2023 on track to potentially double the 2022 figures, Natasha Crowcroft, the WHO鈥檚 global lead for measles and rubella, told STAT in an interview. 鈥淚f this carries on the direction it鈥檚 going in, this is going to be a disaster for children in the most vulnerable settings,鈥 Crowcroft said. (Branswell, 11/16)
Measles is among the most infectious diseases known and spreads in the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. It is most common in children under 5. Symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose and a distinctive rash. Most deaths are due to complications like encephalitis, severe dehydration, serious breathing problems and pneumonia. Complications are most likely in young children and adults over 30.The disease has also surged in some rich countries in recent years. British health authorities warned in July that there was an extremely high risk of outbreaks in London, with some areas of the capital reporting that only 40% of children were vaccinated. (11/16)
The researchers also saw coverage gaps of the vaccine, which is given as a two-dose series. Though global vaccine coverage was up modestly between 2021 and 2022, 33 million kids missed a measles vaccine dose, including 22 million who didn't get their first dose and 11 million who never received their second shot. (Schnirring, 11/16)
On the global spread of tuberculosis 鈥
A promising way to prevent the spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis was announced at the Union World Conference on Lung Health on Thursday in Paris. Two clinical trials, conducted in South Africa and Vietnam, looked at levofloxacin, one of the antibiotics most commonly used to treat people who've developed drug-resistant TB. Now there's strong evidence that taking the drug can reduce the risk of developing drug-resistant strains of the bacterial disease by about 60%. (Kritz, 11/16)
