A new report suggests that the number of children vaccinated against measles globally — which declined during the Covid-19 pandemic — is nearly back to pre-pandemic levels. But the number of cases of the highly infectious disease surpassed the pre-Covid tally in 2024, according to the World Health Organization.
The annual measles assessment, published Friday in the WHO’s Weekly Epidemiological Record, is for last year. It does not touch on this year’s large ongoing measles outbreaks in the United States and Canada, which led the latter country to lose its measles-free status and left the status of the former’s measles-elimination status in doubt.
Kate O’Brien, who heads WHO’s Department of Immunization, Vaccines, and Biologicals, said measles vaccination efforts worldwide have had a substantial impact, averting nearly 59 million deaths from the infection from 2000 to 2024.
“The measles vaccine has saved more lives than any other childhood immunization in the past 50 years,” O’Brien said during a recent news conference about the new report. “This is a remarkable public health achievement and a testament to what coordinated global action can accomplish.”
She described measles outbreaks as an early warning system for the status of immunization programs overall. When herd immunity against a variety of vaccine-preventable diseases is eroded, it takes time for the real-world consequences to manifest. But because measles is so contagious, even small dips in the percentage of children who are vaccinated will lead to increases in infections.
Canada loses measles elimination status — as does the entire Americas region
When a country starts to experience measles outbreaks, it means that immunization gaps for a number of other diseases are also growing, O’Brien said. “Unfortunately, for much of the world, alarms are ringing. Measles cases are surging. Outbreaks are increasing and too many children remain unprotected.”
The report estimates that there were about 11 million measles cases in 2024, an 8% increase over the 2019 estimate. But while the number of overall cases increased, the number of deaths declined, with the report estimating 95,000 deaths, an 11% drop since 2019. That seeming contradiction — more cases but fewer deaths — reflects where outbreaks are happening, the report said. Death rates from measles are highest in low-income countries, but the number of cases in these countries has declined in recent years, with more cases occurring in middle-income countries.
In 2024, an estimated 84% of the world’s children had received at least one dose of measles vaccine. But two doses are recommended to achieve the type of protection that prevents measles spread. According to the report, 76% of children had received two doses of measles vaccine in 2024.
