NewsDesk @bactiman63

Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated their Global Measles Outbreaks page, which lists the top 10 countries with measles outbreaks for January 2022 – June 2022.

Africa
Image/Robert Herriman

The numbers are based on World Health Organization (WHO) data and Nigeria tops the list for the time frame with 18,628 cases.

The CDC notes Measles outbreaks are declared when the number of cases reported in an area is higher than the expected number of cases.

Following Nigeria is India (7,283), Pakistan (5,506), Liberia (5,403), Ethiopia (4,168), Afghanistan (2,762), Democratic Republic of the Congo (2,164), Cameroon (1,811), Indonesia (1,503) and rounding out the top ten is Côte d’Ivoire (1,238).

CDC says almost 41 countries have already put off, or may put off, their measles campaigns for 2020 or 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This increases the risk of bigger outbreaks around the world, including the United States.

Measles can enter the United States through infected travelers entering or travelling through to the U.S. as well as through infected U.S. travelers returning from other countries.

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