This year, there have been more than 500 cases of measles in all of Austria. The trend is increasing. In comparison, there were only 186 illnesses in the entire previous year.
According to AGES (Agency for Health and Food Safety), there have been 502 confirmed illnesses since the beginning of the year, as reported on Thursday. “This is by far the highest number in 20 years,” Judith Aberle, professor of viral immunology at the Medical University of Vienna, wrote on Twitter.
186 cases last year
In the whole of last year, 186 cases were reported in this country. Of these, 49 people required hospital treatment. There are currently data available on hospital admissions of 489 people who had measles this year. 105 people required hospital treatment, four of whom were in intensive care.
Further infections are expected, AGES wrote. While current case numbers are low, much more needs to be done to raise awareness and increase vaccination rates, expert Aberle said.
Highly contagious droplet infection
Measles is a highly contagious droplet infection. AGES explained that sometimes life-threatening complications can occur, such as inflammation of the lungs and brain. With a sufficiently high vaccination rate, the virus could be eradicated.
But for this to happen, 95 percent of the population would need to be immune. The measles vaccine is a combination vaccine against measles-mumps-rubella (MMR). Two vaccinations are recommended from the age of nine months.
Source: Krone
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