There is no calm on the health front. After the flu, another disease makes the health authorities worry: measles. In a press release published this Thursday, March 20, the France Public Health Agency requires a “reinforced surveillance” in the face of a multiplication of cases in France and in the rest of Europe. A message similar to health and early childhood professionals on March 7 had been sent.
This disease, benign in the vast majority of cases, is manifested by fatigue, fever and small very characteristic pimples. “After 10 days, everything can return to normal,” as explained at the beginning of March at BFMTV Robert Sebbag Infectiologist at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris (AP-HP).
In detail, SPF evokes a duplication of cases identified at the beginning of 2025 compared to the same period last year. “From January 1 to March 14, 2025, 180 cases of measles were declared against 83 during the same period in 2024, a little more than double,” identify the authorities in a situation bulletin.
These cases are dispersed in 34 departments, with particular an arc that covers six departments in the south of the country. “More than half of the cases declared 5 worried departments, El Norte (55 cases), the Val-D’oise (15 cases), the Bouches-Du-Rhône (13 cases), the AIN (9cas) and the Alps-Maritimes (9 cases)”, specifies SPF.
In all cases registered in France in the last three months, almost half have been hospitalized. One in five patients experienced complications, including encephalitis. Children under four represent half of the cases.
Imported cases in a global resurgence context
French cases are not isolated. While we observe a disturbing situation at European scale. The Public Health Agency points out that 20% of cases in Metropolitan territory were imported from seven countries, including Morocco, where the epidemic is unleashed. 41 cases of Morocco have been recovered since the beginning of the year, compared to 26 throughout 2024.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the situation is just more delicious. In the United States, where the disease was considered eradicated in 2000, hundreds of cases were recently declared, with the first deaths for ten years.
A fire driven by a distrust of vaccination, carried by the new Minister of Health, Robert F. Kennedy JR, has promoted “alternative” treatments: cod oil, steroids and antibiotics.
“None (of these treatments, editor’s note) is known to be effective against measles,” Nature scientific journal said.
In France, vaccination is mandatory among young children born since January 1, 2018, with failures linked to the Covid-19 Pandemia. The vaccination rate in adults, from 18 to 35 years old, is still too low (90.4%).
According to the ECDC, the European Health Agency, the strong increase in infections is due to a non -optimal vaccination rate. Children under one year old, too young to be vaccinated, pay the highest price because the accumulation of unprotected population groups continues to contribute to measles spread. Almost 90 % of the people who were diagnosed with measles in 2024 had not been vaccinated.
Source: BFM TV
