Ukraine leads a varied list of countries with the highest reported incidence rate of measles in 2018.
"While the country has now managed to vaccinate over 90 per cent of its infants, coverage had been low for several years, leaving a large number of older children and adults at risk. Several other countries with high incidence and high coverage have significant groups of people who have missed the measles vaccine in the past. This shows how low coverage over time or discrete communities of unvaccinated people can spark deadly outbreaks," the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) said on July 15.
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According to the WHO and UNICEF, the level of coverage with the first dose of a measles vaccine in Ukraine in 2010 was 56% and it was 91% in 2018.
In addition to Ukraine, the top ten countries with the highest reported incidence rate of measles cases in 2018 included the Democratic Republic of the Congo (74% of the first dose in 2010 and 80% in 2018), Madagascar (66% and 62%, respectively), Liberia (65% and 91%), Somalia (46% and 46%), Serbia (95% and 92%), Georgia (94% and 98%), Albania (99% and 96%), Yemen (68% and 64%), and Romania (95% and 90%).
In 2018, almost 350,000 measles cases were reported globally, more than doubling from 2017.
