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 The WHO's Kate O'Brien put the blame on weak health systems and
misinformation about vaccines, and called on social media outlets
and communities to make sure information about preventing the highly
contagious disease was accurate.
"We are backsliding, we are on the wrong track," O'Brien, director
of WHO's department of immunization, vaccines and biologicals, told
a news briefing.
"We have a worrying trend that all regions are experiencing an
increase in measles except for the region of the Americas, which has
seen a small decline."
Nearly three times as many cases were reported from January to July
this year than in the same period in 2018, the WHO said.
Nearly 365,000 cases have been reported globally this year, the
highest figure since 2006, it said, noting that they represent only
a fraction of the 6.7 million suspected cases. Measles caused an
estimated 109,000 deaths in 2017, its most recent figures show.
The biggest outbreaks are raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo
(155,460 cases), Madagascar (127,454) and Ukraine (54,246), it said.
Europe has also lost ground, with four countries stripped of their
"measles-free" status in 2018 - Albania, Czech Republic, Greece and
Britain, it said.
The WHO figures did not include a specific breakdown of numbers for
the Americas region.
The United States has recorded 1,215 measles cases across 30 states
in its worst outbreak since 1992, federal health officials said on
Monday.
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Health experts say the virus has spread among school-age children
whose parents declined to give them the measles-mumps-rubella
vaccine, which confers immunity to the disease.
Trust in vaccines - among the world's most effective and widely used
medical products - is highest in poorer countries but weaker in
wealthier ones where scepticism has allowed outbreaks of diseases
such as measles to persist, a global study found in June.
"We do see misinformation as an increasing threat," O'Brien said.
"We are calling on social media providers, communities, leaders,
people who speak out, to be sure you are communicating accurate,
valid, scientifically credible information."
In the 53 countries of Europe, 90,000 measles cases were recorded in
the first half of this year, already more than that for all of 2018,
said Siddhartha Datta, from the WHO's regional office for Europe.
Ukraine, which accounts for more than half of the cases, is
implementing a robust response, he said. "The ministry of health is
doing targeted immunization campaigns ... They are also doing
school-based vaccination, high-risk vaccination of military recruits
and health care workers."
(This story was refiled to fix typo in first paragraph.)
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Alison Williams and Jon
Boyle)
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