The World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF urged authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to increase measles vaccination rates among children after two teenagers died in an outbreak of the highly infectious respiratory disease, according to Euractiv.
Bosnia has the highest number of measles infections in the Balkans. More than 7,000 cases have been reported since the first outbreak last December. By comparison, neighbouring Montenegro has only eight cases.
In addition, Bosnia’s national measles immunisation rate was only 55%, compared with 90% in neighbouring Croatia, Erwin Cooreman, the WHO’s special representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, noted.
There is no clearer sign of a breakdown in immunization coverage than an increase in measles cases.
According to WHO, measles, an airborne virus that mainly affects children under the age of five, can have devastating effects on children’s health, sometimes with fatal consequences. However, two doses of the vaccine can prevent such an outcome. Marc Lucet, UNICEF’s representative in Bosnia, urged health officials to make greater efforts to vaccinate children.
In 2024, there is no justification for children to be at risk of contracting this preventable disease.
A 17-year-old boy who contracted measles died in July in a hospital in Sarajevo, Bosnia’s capital. An epidemic was declared there after more than 4,000 cases were reported this year. A week later, an 18-year-old boy who contracted the virus died in the central town of Zenica.
None of them had been vaccinated against measles.
In February, WHO warned that more than half of the world’s countries would be at high or very high risk of measles outbreaks by the end of the year unless urgent preventive measures were taken.
