France registered almost 500 measles cases in 2024, four times more than in 2023, indicates this Monday, April 28, Public Health France (SPF), while noting that this level is still limited compared to the foreground.
“Among the suspicious measles cases that occurred between January 1 and December 31, 2024, 483 measles cases, 84 imported, declared themselves throughout France,” according to the annual evaluation. If 62 metropolitan departments have identified at least one case, no case has been reported abroad.
A decrease in vaccination coverage
Since 2023, an increase in the measles epidemic worldwide has been observed after several years of falling in the coverage of measles vaccination, papers and rubella (Ror), observed after the Cavid-19 pandemic. He accentuated in France last year, with a series of cases and an incidence multiplied by four.
However, the number of cases remains “still limited to the average for years before the COVVI-19 pandemic (average of 2,024 cases every year in 2017-2019),” France Public Health said.
The disease has led to hospitalizations for almost a third of cases (144), especially children under five and adults over 30 years. He associated with a complication, mainly pneumonia, for 66 people, often over 30 years old. It has not been informed of death.
The 2024 evaluation points in particular “Population pockets still receptive to measles virus, especially in adolescents and young adults, as well as travelers returning from endemicity areas”, take into account the public health of France. A “significant participation of cases of cases” occurred “in the nursery in babies whose measles virus infection may have serious consequences, including the long term.”
Identified epidemic foci
Of the 68 grouped cases identified, there were six epidemic foci of at least 5 cases, affecting schools, family circles, certain populations (Romani camps) but especially several nurseries. The most important episode referred to Auverne-Rhône-Alpes (53 cases reported between January and April 2024).
Among the 300 cases eligible for vaccination (aged at least one year and born since 1980) and the state of the full vaccine, almost two thirds (64%) were not vaccinated against measles, 15% with a dose, 18% with two and 3% with a series of unknown doses, SPF details.
And almost a third of the cases declared in 2024 (157) were imported or linked to an import, “confirming the resumption of measles circulation in the world and the risk of re -Emergence in France,” the agency said. Imported cases have risen in particular (84 against 31 in 2023), and more than half were not vaccinated.
Source: BFM TV
