The measles epidemic that hit Berlin claimed its first victim in an 18-month-old baby. For fear of contagion and for preventive reasons, the German health authorities have decided to preventively close a primary school.
Since October, this highly contagious viral infection, which is transmitted mainly by air, has affected 570 people in Berlin according to the Robert Koch Institute for Health Monitoring. The majority of patients were infected during the first four months.
The epidemic is said to have arrived with asylum seekers from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, countries themselves affected by measles since February 2014.
While the only effective prevention against this viral infection remains vaccination, in Germany the debate is raging around the refusal of certain parents to vaccinate their children. An irresponsible opposition according to the Federal Minister of Health Hermann Gröhe who asks the Germans to check their vaccination.
“Whoever refuses to vaccinate his child not only puts that child at risk, but others as well,” he said in a statement taken up by AFP.
Worldwide, measles affects more than 30 million children and remains the leading cause of death from vaccine-preventable disease (875,000 deaths per year), according to the Ministry of Health.
In France, the measles epidemic had returned since 2008. Even if the number of cases decreased in 2013, transmission continues. In 2013, the National Institute for Prevention and Health Education (Inpes) was alarmed that those under 30 were not not sufficiently vaccinated against measlesmumps and rubella.
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