A timely reminder

WHO is reporting that there has been a ‘huge’ surge in measles across Europe


Editorial September 06, 2018

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is reporting that there has been a ‘huge’ surge in measles across Europe, and directly blames low vaccination rates for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR). The numbers are alarming. There have been 41,000 cases in the European region between January and June this year, as compared to 24,000 for the whole of 2017. There has been a ‘dramatic’ increase in infections, and outbreaks have been of extended duration. There have been 37 fatalities. Two countries that thought they had eradicated measles — Germany and Russia — have now been reclassified as ‘measles endemic’ by the WHO. The WHO had the goal of eliminating measles from Europe by 2020 but this now looks unlikely. Political reaction has varied — Italy has made vaccination mandatory and unvaccinated children are excluded from kindergarten education. Germany has seen the rise of ‘anti-vaxxer’ organisations.

Why should an uptick in measles in Europe be of concern to Pakistan? Because Pakistan whilst generally receptive to vaccination and not only for measles and other childhood illnesses, has a core of vaccine-resistant individuals that threaten the herd immunity of all others. A fresh polio vaccination campaign is currently in train and there are places where the vaccinators go in fear of their lives. Some, mostly women, are killed in every vaccination cycle.

As a nation with an extremely poor public health record and patchy or absent primary healthcare services in much of the country, we can ill-afford to be banging nails in our own coffins. Measles and polio are 100 per cent preventable and Pakistan has the capacity to eradicate both. There is a timely lesson to be learned from Europe regarding the vulnerabilities of supposedly educated and ‘developed’ nations. It is that denial of good science has deadly consequences, and Pakistan needs to listen carefully.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6th, 2018.

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