WHO calls for vigilance after spike in measles rates

What the World Health Organization has referred to as “a dramatic increase” in cases of measles in Europe has not left Greece untouched, though the rate of cases in the country has slowed in recent months. 

According to the Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention, a total of 2,238 cases were recorded in Greece in the first six months of the year. The rate of infection has slowed, however, from around 150 cases a week to just two last week.

Still, the WHO cited Greece as one of seven countries – along with France, Georgia, Italy, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine – that reported more than 1,000 cases in the first half of 2018. Ukraine was by far the hardest hit, with 23,000 people infected in the first half of the year out of more than 41,000 cases Europe-wide.

In a statement on Monday, the agency called for increased surveillance and immunization rates to prevent the disease from spiralling into an endemic.