The Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) said on Friday that the number of people infected by the measles virus in Russia since the beginning of the year has decreased by 60 percent compared to the same period of 2014.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th September, 2018) The Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) said on Friday that the number of people infected by the measles virus in Russia since the beginning of the year has decreased by 60 percent compared to the same period of 2014.
"Over the year 2018, there have been 1,973 cases of measles. At the same time, this number is 2.5 times lower than in the same period in 2014," Rospotrebnadzor head Anna Popova said at the national conference on measles prevention.
According to the official, 45 percent of patients were adults and 20 percent were children under the age of one. The majority of patients were not vaccinated against the virus, Popova said.
About 6 percent of all patients were health workers, the official pointed out.
Since this March, some 300,000 people in Russia were vaccinated against measles, she said, adding that 400,000 more people still had to be vaccinated.
Commenting on the measles outbreak in neighboring Ukraine, Popova said that Russia's southwestern regions were on high alert in order to immediately react to the infection threats from Ukraine.
Europe is currently suffering a severe outbreak of measles. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 41,000 children and adults in Europe had been infected with the measles virus within the first half of 2018, a figure which exceeds each annual total for this decade. At least 37 people have died from measles this year in Europe, with the highest number of measles-related deaths (14 cases) registered in Serbia.
Ukraine has been one of the hardest hit countries, with nearly 27,000 cases and at least 11 dead of measles complications.
Measles is a highly contagious airborne virus. Vaccination is the major means of prevention.
