This is ten times worse than the rate of infection than the U.S (relative to population), where an epidemic is seen as a possibility.
The rate of infection, primarily in Berlin, has concerned experts.
“The outbreak in Berlin is a sobering setback. In general, Germany’s immunisation rate is too low,” Anette Siedler, the director of Germany’s renowned Robert Koch Institute, was quoted as saying in the German media.
However the World Health Organisation says that Germany has one of the world’s highest immunisation rates among one-year-olds with 97 per cent. For comparison, the U.S has 91 per cent.
The problem, officials say, is that children are not receiving sufficient immunisation, or are getting vaccinated too late. People are too “relaxed” about immunisation in countries that have not seen the full picture of how devastating a disease like measles can be.
Experts say that this is not the same as being anti-vaccination.
“We are seeing increasing ‘vaccine hesitancy’ in parts of Europe,”Lucia Pastore Celentano, head of the Vaccine Preventable Disease Program at the European Center for Disease Control or ECDC, told The Daily Beast.
“This is different to being an ‘anti-vaxxer’. Vaccine-hesitant individuals hold varying degrees of indecision about specific vaccines or vaccination in general. This is a result of a lack of trust in the vaccine or the healthcare provider, complacency towards the disease itself, because we no longer have direct experience of the diseases, and the inconvenience of taking a child to be vaccinated,” Celentano said.
Most of the cases presented in Germany have been in adults born from 1970-1990 rather than children, where the disease is commonly found.
The outbreak isn’t just contained in Germany. Outbreaks have appeared all over Europe, with nearly 4000 cases of measles recorded last year.
“Measles outbreaks continue to occur in Europe, underscoring some of the challenges still to be addressed in relation to the goal of eliminating measles from the region,” the Journal of Infectious Diseases reported.
Clearly there is much education to be done.
“Improved efforts are needed to strengthen immunization programs, identify barriers for measles-containing vaccine uptake and explore methods to target vulnerable populations that are not being reached with routine immunization delivery services,” the journal said.
Last year Australian health authorities sent out a PSA urging the population to stay up to date with their vaccinations after an outbreak of the disease in a suburb in Sydney.
