Measles could be back, but don't fall for misinformation

Europe has had the highest number of measles cases since 1997, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO). There were 127,350 cases in 2024 – about double the number from 2023.

“Measles is back, and it’s a wake-up call,” says Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe. “Without high vaccination rates, there is no health security.” Last year, there were 38 deaths from measles.

Transmission is similar to COVID-19, with respiratory droplets and aerosols (airborne transmission) spreading the virus between people. The infection produces a rash and fever in mild cases, and encephalitis (brain swelling), pneumonia and blindness in severe cases.

Hospitalisation and deaths are overwhelmingly in unvaccinated people, with mortality rates in developed countries around one in 1,000 to one in 5,000 measles cases.

Each person infected with measles will, on average, spread the virus to between 12 and 18 other people. This is more infectious than COVID. For example, someone with the omicron variant would spread the virus to around eight others.

In 2022 the WHO had described measles as an “imminent threat in every region of the world”. The widespread impact of COVID made it harder for people to access healthcare, reducing the ability of regular health services, like vaccinations, to function properly.

Misinformation is an important factor that reduces vaccine uptake. For example, in the UK, former physician Andrew Wakefield presented falsified data in 2002 claiming the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine caused autism. He somehow got these claims published in The Lancet – although the paper was later retracted.

This fake scare received sustained media coverage, which resulted in lower uptake in young children at the time and was then a key factor a large measles outbreak among teenagers in England in 2012.

The claims have spread internationally. In 2020, a US population survey found that “18% of our respondents mistakenly state that it is very or somewhat accurate to say that vaccines cause autism”.

Sadly, misinformation about health can even be found at the highest levels of government. US President Donald Trump repeatedly made false claims during the COVID pandemic, including the suggestion that injecting disinfectant might cure COVID. In 2025, he appointed Robert F. Kennedy as the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy has long espoused anti-vaccine viewpoints, including being required to apologise in 2015 for comparing vaccination programmes to the Holocaust.

In a recent interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity, Kennedy said of the MMR vaccine: “It does cause deaths every year. It causes — it causes all the illnesses that measles itself causes, encephalitis and blindness, et cetera.”

This is untrue. The Infectious Disease Society of America points out that there have been “no deaths related to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in healthy individuals”.

The US National Institute for Health, one of the world’s biggest funders of health research, announced on March 10 2025 that it was axing research that aimed to understand and address vaccine hesitancy.

There is an urgent need for outbreaks to be brought back under control and for accurate information about vaccines to be the key message in public discussions. As Dr Kluge highlights: “The measles virus never rests – and neither can we.”

(Senior Research Fellow in Global Health, University of Southampton)