Every day, measles kills more than 300 children, making it a major cause of death among children
Measles is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by the measles virus. Despite there being a vaccinate for more than 40 years, there are still an estimated 450 people, mostly children, die every day from measles.
The highest number of the almost 190,000 total confirmed measles cases in 2018 has been reported in India – more than 55,000 -, followed by Ukraine, the Philippines, Yemen and Nigeria. India is also leading for the 8 year period of cases between 2011 and 2018: almost 350,000 of the more than 1.5 million cases have been reported there. China, Nigeria, Indonesia and the Philippines complete the top 5. One of the highest increase between 2011 and 2018 happened was recorded in both, Ukraine and Yemen, likely because of the very unstable situation in both countries due to the wars starting there in 2014 and 2015 respectively.