Worldwide Measles Deaths Drop Dramatically

Dec. 5 -- THURSDAY, Dec. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Worldwide deaths from measles plummeted 74 percent between 2000 and 2007, according to a new report, and experts say the trend is clear evidence that an international campaign to increase measles vaccination rates is working.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, the number of deaths fell from 750,000 to 197,000. Moreover, measles deaths in the Eastern Mediterranean region, which includes countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Sudan, dropped by 90 percent, from 96,000 to 10,000 deaths, beating by three years the United Nations' goal of cutting measles deaths in that area 90 percent by 2010.

"The progress made today is a major contribution to achieving the United Nations Millennium Development target of reducing child mortality by two-thirds by 2015," Dr. Peter Strebel, of the World Health Organization's Department of Immunization, Vaccines, and Biologicals, said during a morning teleconference Thursday.

For the first time, measles vaccinations around the world reached 82 percent in 2007, up from 72 percent in 2000, Strebel said. "And we are reaching more children with measles vaccine through routine vaccination services," he added.

This success is a result of the Measles Initiative, the experts said. Started in 2001, the initiative is a collaborative effort by the World Health Organization, the CDC, the American Red Cross, the United Nations Foundation and UNICEF.

The new findings are published in the Dec. 5 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

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Despite this success, Strebel thinks efforts to eradicate measles need to be stepped up, or else the gains could be lost.

Ann M. Veneman, executive director of UNICEF, said during the teleconference that child deaths for those under age 5 around the world have dropped to 9.2 million.

"That's unacceptable, but an improvement and a 60 percent reduction in the rate of child mortality since 1960," Veneman said. "The success of the Measles Initiative shows the result of government commitment to children and the benefit of providing community-based integrated health programs."