The United Kingdom and five other countries in Europe and Central Asia recently lost their measles elimination status, according to a report by Reuters.
Reuters reports that Spain, Austria, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan lost their status, along with the UK.
WHO committees in each region decide whether a country is measles-free using case rates. To be considered measles-free by the WHO, a country must have no locally transmitted cases of the same strain for 12 months or longer.
The decision to strip certain European countries of their status was made last September based on data from 2024. But the WHO only released the information on Monday after getting sign-off from every country involved.
Source: Reuters
According to the BMJ, UK outbreaks began in late 2023 and intensified through 2024,…