Childhood Measles Vaccination Rates Down Globally

FRIDAY, Oct. 30, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- There has been a global decline in childhood measles vaccination rates since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published online Oct. 21 in Nature Medicine.Benn Sartorius, Ph.D., from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and the GBD 2023 Measles Collaborators used data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2023 to assess measles incidence, mortality, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and vaccine coverage among children younger than 5 years of age across 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2023.The researchers found that between 1990 and 2019, global measles incidence and mortality declined by approximately 80 and 90 percent, respectively. However, there was a sharp rebound after 2020, with 15.6 million cases and 118,000 deaths estimated in 2023 (+40 and +12 percent increases, respectively, between 2019 and 2023). The highest burden continues to be in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Global coverage for measles-containing vaccine 1 rose from 1990 to 2019, from 67.2 to 83.6 percent, but stalled and declined slightly to 81.0 percent by 2023. For measles-containing vaccine 2, coverage increased from 14.4 percent in 1990 to 68.4 percent in 2019 and reached 71.4 percent by 2023."The greatest burden occurs in lower-resourced settings, yet recent outbreaks in the United States show measles can re-emerge in high-income countries where immunity gaps develop," Sartorius said in a statement.Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.Abstract/Full Text (subscription or payment may be required).Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Childhood Measles Vaccination Rates Down Globally

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