EUROPE may become a significant source of “exported” measles in poor countries that have done a better job eliminating the virus.
A study in The Lancet this week finds that the World Health Organization is unlikely to meet its of eliminating measles in the European region by 2010 because vaccination rates in many countries, including Germany, the UK and Italy, are too low to stop the spread of the virus ()61849-8).
In contrast, Latin America eliminated measles in 2002, but has since suffered outbreaks “imported” from Europe. While measles rarely kills in Europe, in poorer countries malnutrition and limited healthcare make the virus far more lethal, warns Jacques Kremer of Luxembourg’s National Health Institute in an accompanying editorial ().
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