Alert, measles is back! At least, the World Health Organization WHO is sounding the alarm now that 30,000 cases of infection have been detected in ‘the broad European region’. A lower vaccination rate is the cause. The willingness to vaccinate is also decreasing in the Netherlands. Five questions.
1. Will we soon find ourselves in bed with red spots like before?
No, it won’t happen that quickly. The vaccination rate is still relatively high in the Netherlands. Around 90 percent of babies receive the so-called MMR injection against mumps, measles and rubella. That’s a lot, but the trend is downwards. Last June, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) reported that the measles vaccination rate ‘appears to be just below 90 percent for babies for the first time in years’.
“A vaccination rate above 95 percent is important to protect all residents of the Netherlands against this disease. If that percentage is not achieved, there is a greater chance that the measles will return,” the RIVM said in June 2023. The current status is unknown. The RIVM provides an update on the vaccination rate once a year.
2. What is the reason that there are parents who do not have their children vaccinated?
This “may be a consequence of the corona pandemic”, according to the RIVM. The heated discussions about vaccinations against Covid-19 may have dented confidence in medical science. On the other hand, the downward trend had already started before 2020, when the pandemic broke out. Vaccination was no longer self-evident, especially among highly educated people with an anthroposophical attitude to life. In addition, there are, as always, people in the ‘Bible Belt’ who, for religious reasons, choose not to allow their children to participate in the national vaccination programs.
3. How contagious is measles?
It is a super contagious viral disease. More contagious than the flu. Spread is therefore very rapid. Before measles was included in the vaccination program in 1976, there were hundreds of thousands of measles cases in the Netherlands every year. Despite the vaccinations, there is sometimes an outbreak in the Netherlands, such as in 2013 when 2688 measles reports were made to the RIVM.
The chance of dying from measles in the Netherlands is less than 1 in 10,000 cases. That is a small chance, but, according to a spokesperson for the RIVM: “If many people become infected, it also means that more people will die.” In developing countries, it is estimated that around 250 children die from measles every day.
4. What are the symptoms?
In addition to flu-like symptoms such as fever, these are of course the well-known red spots. Plus an eye infection and possibly an ear infection and diarrhea. In severe cases, pneumonia, convulsions or encephalitis may also occur. In very rare cases, seven years after measles, someone develops a brain infection that ‘is always fatal’, reports the RIVM. Young children, adults and people with reduced immune systems in particular can become seriously ill from measles. Healthy children of primary school age can tolerate it better.
5. Should we be concerned?
Not immediately, says a RIVM spokesperson. “Many parents still have their children vaccinated. That’s positive. But it is not without reason that we use the term ‘worrisome’ when it comes to the declining vaccination rate. Measles is a dangerous disease.”
Pregnant women who have not been vaccinated and have never had measles should be especially careful. Their babies are unprotected and have an increased risk of death. Babies born to vaccinated mothers are protected for three to four months.