GlobalHealthSince 2021Curatedhigh confidence

Measles Resurgence

A vaccine-preventable disease returning as immunisation coverage slips.

Severity score

35.6

Serious · default weighting

Trajectory

Worsening

What this is

Measles cases have surged following pandemic-era disruption to routine immunisation and growing vaccine refusal. Outbreaks concentrate in under-vaccinated communities and conflict zones, and the disease also suppresses immunity to other infections for years afterwards.

Score breakdown

Loss of life

44

Direct and attributable mortality, normalised across annual and cumulative tolls.

Lives negatively impacted

48

People displaced, injured, food-insecure, exposed or otherwise materially harmed.

Financial cost

14

Direct damage, lost output and health-system spend attributable to the event.

Environmental impact

1

Emissions, habitat and biodiversity loss, contamination and irreversibility.

Trajectory

74

Whether the situation is escalating, and how much worse it is plausibly getting.