2023-06-21 08:47:18
Vaccination once morest measles became mandatory on January 1, 2018. The number of people infected has dropped drastically since then, falling to just 15 cases in 2022.
On the verge of extinction. Measles, an extremely contagious viral disease, has suffered a sharp decline in France in recent years. The number of cases fell from 2,636 in 2019 to just 240 in 2020, then 16 in 2021 and 15 in 2022, according to figures released by Public health France.
A decrease favored by a vaccination made compulsory on January 1, 2018. The measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, 100% reimbursed for children on presentation of the Vitale card, must be the subject of two injections: one at the 12 months old, the other between 16 and 18 months.
A disease almost eradicated
If the disease seems almost completely eradicated today in France, there is no question of relaxing the effort in the face of this virus, the circulation of which was also largely stemmed by containment measures during the Covid-19 crisis.
“We must not stop measles vaccination above all because we have good figures today. It would be a counter-message”, estimates at the microphone of BFMTV Christophe Batard, pediatrician in Vincennes and member of the French Association of Ambulatory Pediatrics .
“The idea is to continue this vaccination, we do not stop a winning team”, continues the practitioner.
The first sign of measles infection is usually a high fever, which appears regarding 10-12 days following exposure to the virus and lasts for 4-7 days. This fever can be accompanied by a cough, red and watery eyes and a runny nose, as well as small whitish dots on the inside of the cheeks. These points can then reach the rest of the face and the top of the neck, then the hands and the feet.
Serious forms
Measles can also cause complications. “It is a disease which can give serious forms, especially in children, with encephalitis, equivalents of meningitis, and then above all respiratory damage with pneumonia, as can the Covid”, warns on BFMTV Benjamin Davido , infectious disease specialist at the Raymond-Poincaré hospital in Garches, in the Hauts-de-Seine.
Some cases can thus lead to hospitalization, or even resuscitation, with organ failure. Complications occur more frequently before the age of 5 or in adults over 30 years of age.
Measles is still wreaking havoc around the world
If France has almost eradicated the disease, measles “remains a common disease in many developing countries”, recalls the World Health Organization (WHO). Present in particular in Africa and Asia, it still killed more than 200,000 people in 2019.
Introduced in 1963, vaccination has however prevented 20.4 million child deaths between 2000 and 2016, once more according to the WHO. Hence the importance of being well vaccinated from an early age.
Edgar Bequet, Caroline Dieudonné, Coline Chambolle with Thomas Chenel
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