Health Ministry declares nationwide measles epidemic

Romania's Health Ministry officially declared a nationwide measles epidemic on Tuesday evening, in a bid to bolster the vaccination of children aged 9 to 11 months, and allow non-immunized children or those with an incomplete immunization status to catch up. The move is the result of the worrisome increase in measles cases, as well as of the large number of hospitalizations in pediatric and infectious disease wards, the Ministry said, adding that almost 2,000 cases are currently registered in Romania in 29 out of 41 counties.The Ministry will enlist family doctors to run an information campaign for parents, for a better adherence to the vaccination program."Measles is an infectious disease, which is easily transmitted especially to unvaccinated children, and sometimes it has a serious evolution, as complications may occur. The nationwide first-dose vaccine coverage is 78 percent, and that with the second dose is 62 percent of eligible children, having followed a downward trend for more than 10 years now. The recent adoption of the National Vaccination Strategy is precisely aimed at eliminating these risks to public health, caused by vaccine-preventable diseases," the Health Ministry said."There was a progressive decrease in interest in vaccination. (...) There have been intense anti-vaccine campaigns - including against corona immunization. (...) There are concrete cases, people must know that measles is sometimes a delayed fatal disease. There is a condition caused by the measles virus, subacute panencephalitis, which appears a few years after a measles illness and which is fatal. Everyone should avoid this danger," Health Minister Alexandru Rafila told a specialist conference on Wednesday.Doctor Adrian Marinescu, the medical director of the 'Matei Bals' National Institute for Infectious Diseases, said that the rise in the number of measles cases is a consequence of lacking protection through vaccination."Let me caution you of an important aspect - in the near future, or in the following weeks we also expect a surge in the spread of flu viruses and, in general, of viruses that are transmitted through the airways - and measles falls in this category too, we'll have the flu, we will also have other viruses, and things can get quite complicated," Marinescu explained.