By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - The World Health Organization in Europe called on Wednesday for measles vaccination campaigns to be stepped up across the region after recording 22,000 cases of the highly infectious disease since the start of 2014. Saying she was "taken aback" by high case numbers, Zsuzsanna Jakab, the U.N. health agency's European director, said the 22,149 reported cases from seven countries threatened the region's goal of eliminating measles by the end of 2015. Italy has seen 1,674 measles cases since the beginning of last year, while Germany has had 583, Kyrgyzstan 7,477 and Russia more than 3,240. "It is unacceptable that, after the last 50 years’ efforts to make safe and effective vaccines available, measles continues to cost lives, money and time." Measles is a contagious and sometimes deadly viral disease which can spread very swiftly among unvaccinated children.
via Health News Headlines - Yahoo News http://ift.tt/1wMsPOD
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