More children vaccinated against measles worldwide: WHO

According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, the number of children vaccinated against measles globally is rising.

The WHO says that the tallies are nearly back to pre-pandemic levels.

However, experts say that vaccination still needs to increase even further in order to combat measles.

“Coming out of the pandemic, because of several reasons, vaccination rates were a little bit lower than optimal, said ABC News Medical Contributor Dr. Alok Patel.

“We haven’t really caught up to where we need to be. And then add on widespread vaccine hesitancy and misinformation, and this is a setup for continued outbreaks, which is what we’re seeing throughout 2025.”

The number of active cases of the highly infectious disease has surpassed the pre-COVID statistics.

“It spreads throughout the air from respiratory droplets when people are coughing or sneezing, and they’re infected. But also, what’s really scary about the measles is that this virus can survive in the air for several hours and can even survive on surfaces. And it is so contagious,” Patel added.

“If somebody has the measles and they go around a group of other people and those people are vaccinated, 90 per cent of that group can catch some measles and then spread it to others.”

The Pan American Health Organization revoked Canada’s measles elimination status earlier in November due to a large outbreak that has mostly impacted under-vaccinated communities across Canada since October 2024.

The loss of the status, which Canada had held since 1998, caused the entire region of the Americas to lose its designation.

In the first week of November alone, the BC Centre for Disease Control confirmed 26 new measles cases.

Measles, one of the most contagious diseases in the world, requires 95 per cent vaccination coverage to obtain herd immunity.

With files from ABC News.