During the last five years, Italian health officials reported slightly more than 10,000 measles cases (10,065) and 2017 accounted for about half of this total.

Image/sferrario1968
Image/sferrario1968

According to the Ministero della Salute (computer translated), there were 4,991 cases of measles from 21 regions, including four deaths.

Most of the cases were reported by eight Regions: Lazio (n = 1.699), Lombardia (n = 787), Piedmont
(n = 629), Sicily (n = 425), Tuscany (n = 370), Veneto (n = 288), Abruzzo (n = 173) and Campania (n = 108).

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Of the four fatalities, three were in children under 10 years of age (1, 6 and 9 years respectively) and one person aged 41, all unvaccinated. Each case had some underlying medical condition.

87.5% of cases for which the vaccination status is known were non-vaccinated and 7.2% had only one dose of vaccine.

Related: The growing anti-vaccine movement: A discussion with Dr Peter Hotez

45 percent of the cases required hospitalization.

From 1 December 2016 to 30 November 2017,  14,393 cases of measles were reported in 30 EU / EEA countries, of which 60% confirmed in the laboratory. All countries except Latvia and Malta reported cases during this period.

In addition, 65 cases of rubella were been reported in Italy last year.

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