Measles cases are rising – here’s what can be done

This article has been updated.

Measles is on the rise. Last year saw 127,350 cases across Europe, double the number compared to 2023 figures and the highest number for more than 25 years. While, in the US, 301 cases of the virus have already been confirmed as of March 2025. These cases represent an escalation of an already worrying trajectory.

There were an estimated 10.3 million cases of measles worldwide in 2023 – a 20% increase on 2022 figures, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) – and a 45-fold increase in measles cases between 2022 and 2023 across 41 countries in Europe and parts of central Asia.

So why are we in the middle of this "alarming rise" in measles cases – and what is being done about it?

Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that infects the respiratory tract and spreads throughout the body, causing fever and a rash.

At its most severe, it can lead to complications including blindness, pneumonia and encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, which can kill.

The latest data from the WHO shows that over 100,000 people died from measles in 2023, the majority being children.

Young children under five, pregnant women, adults over 20 and those with compromised immune systems are most at risk of measles complications.

While measles is still common in Africa and parts of the Middle East and Asia, countries in Europe and the US had been declared measles-free in recent years – and these are now seeing a worrying resurgence.

Romania, one of 53 countries included in the WHO European Region, has seen the highest number of measles cases, with 30,692 recorded in 2024.

In western Europe, the UK is one of the worst affected countries. In 2024, the UK’s Health Security Agency (HSA) declared a “national incident”, reports the Financial Times (FT), after seeing suspected cases more than quadruple in England and Wales – from 360 in 2021 to 1,603 in 2023. Vaccination rates for two doses in the country have fallen below 90%, reports the BBC.

This is in stark contrast to 2017, when the UK received “measles-free status” from the WHO as a result of having just 284 cases. The city of Birmingham alone registered 250 cases in the four months from October 2023 to January 2024, according to the FT.

As the Chief Executive of the HSA Professor Dame Jenny Harries warned, children who get measles can be “very poorly, and some will suffer life-changing complications”.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is monitoring continuing outbreaks across the US, reported that a majority of the confirmed cases in the first three months of 2025 were in children aged 5-19 years of age. Two people have died from measles there so far this year.

To keep progressing in the fight against measles, countries are expected to achieve a rate of 95% coverage with two doses of measles-containing vaccine.

Between 2000 and 2023, second-dose vaccine coverage rose in all regions, albeit unevenly, as seen in the chart using WHO and CDC data below. This saved an estimated 57 million lives.

But overall, rates of vaccination coverage have been dropping in recent years.

In the WHO European Region alone, over 1.8 million infants missed their measles vaccination between 2020 and 2022, at least partly caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the UK, more than 3.4 million children under 16 are either completely unprotected or only partially protected against measles, says NHS England. While in the US, an average of 91% of children are sufficiently vaccinated, but that figure is lower in certain communities.

Globally, the spread of misinformation about vaccine safety has contributed to the largest sustained drop in the uptake of childhood vaccinations in 30 years, in what UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell warned in 2022 was a “red alert” for child health.

“We need immunization catch-ups for the missing millions or we will inevitably witness more outbreaks, more sick children and greater pressure on already strained health systems,” she said.

As the figures show, there’s urgent work needed to get immunization programmes back on track and to rebuild trust in vaccine safety to reach the 95% coverage threshold.

“Measles is back, and it’s a wake-up call. Without high vaccination rates, there is no health security," the WHO’s Regional Director for Europe, Dr Hans Kluge said. "Every country must step up efforts to reach under-vaccinated communities. The measles virus never rests – and neither can we."

UNICEF and WHO are calling on all governments experiencing measles outbreaks to prioritize case finding and contract tracing, as well as start emergency vaccination programmes. "Reaching hesitant parents and marginalized communities and tackling inequitable access to vaccines must be central to all efforts," they say.

Building up regional vaccine manufacturing capacity can help to make access to vaccines more equitable. To this end, the World Economic Forum has been working with its healthcare partners, including the Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the US National Academy of Medicine, on the Regionalized Vaccine Manufacturing Collaborative.

Together they have created a roadmap for regions to grow production and distribution capabilities sustainably and establish local capacities to respond at scale in epidemics. Read it here: A Framework for Enhancing Vaccine Access Through Regionalized Manufacturing Ecosystems