UNICED warned the people around the world about the comeback of measles as a threat! People who haven't been taking their vaccine amidst the coronavirus pandemic are not at risk.
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Measles Should Not Go Unnoticed
UNICEF warned that over 117 million children in 37 countries may not be able to get the immunization on time for measles due to the current pandemic right now. There already have been several large outbreaks of measles all over Europe, wherein the MMR vaccine uptake was low.
For now, the UK has lost the right to say they are measles-free status due to the number of rising cases of the fatal infection. The vaccine is readily available for all young children in the United Kingdom. Still, the problem is that people are not going out and taking them due to the lockdown status.
Measles can be averted by two doses of the vaccine, which is the mumps, measles, and rubella, or otherwise just called MMR. The World Health Organization's statistics show that there is over 95 percent of five-year-olds get the first dose, but only 87.4% would get the second, which is not a good thing at all.
Measles and COVID-19
Once you get measles, it is highly infectious, just like the novel coronavirus. This is a known fact since measles has been with humanity for a very long time already. The good thing is that the cure for it is already out there, unlike the coronavirus.
The WHO has said that for countries with no active outbreaks of the measles can temporarily pause vaccinations for the time being amidst the coronavirus pandemic to ensure the safety of all. Another pandemic is the last thing people would need if the issue would not be addressed quickly, especially for countries with active outbreaks of measles.
The concern being is that there are over 24 countries right now who have decided to delay the vaccination of the MMR to their youth which is, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bolivia, Cambodia, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Djibouti, the Dominican Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Maldives, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Paraguay, Somalia, South Sudan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
There might be more delays in the vaccination for different countries warns UNICEF in light of the events.
Spokeswoman Joanna Rea had this to say, "If the difficult choice to pause vaccination is made due to the spread of coronavirus, we urge leaders to intensify efforts to track unvaccinated children so that the most vulnerable populations can be provided with measles vaccines as soon as it becomes possible to do so,"
"Disruptions to routine vaccine services will increase the risk of children contracting deadly diseases, compound the current pressures on the national health services and risks the second pandemic of infectious diseases."
