Abstract:
The Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) proposed by the 73rd World Health Assembly in 2020 committed to eliminating measles in at least five of the six WHO regions by 2030. Mean percentages of vaccination coverage with two, one and zero doses of measles vaccine in WHO regions in 2023 were calculated using data from the WHO/UNICEF global and regional immunization information system. The study found that in 2023, the two-dose measles vaccination coverage was lower than 95% in all WHO regions and anti-measles herd immunity levels were sufficient to block the transmission of measles viruses with greater transmissibility (Ro of 15) only in the Western Pacific and European WHO regions. All measles vaccination-coverage-related indicators worsened from 2019 to 2023. The global two-dose measles vaccination coverage decreased by 3.7%, the global zero- dose measles vaccination coverage increased by 7.8%, and the prevalence of vaccine-induced protected individuals (target population) decreased by 0.6%. In 2023, the zero-dose measles vaccination coverage and number of zero-dose measles children observed were not on track to achieve the AI2030 objective. To advance towards measles elimination from WHO regions and measles eradication worldwide it is necessary to develop ambitious strategies to increase routine two-dose measles vaccination coverage in all WHO regions, and to prevent measles transmission among different WHO regions.
Biography:
Pedro Plans-Rubió is member of the College of Physicians of Barcelona, Spain. MD, PhD, MSc in Health Economics, and MSc in Research Methods. Responsible for Health Registries at the Public Health Agency, Department of Health of Catalonia, Spain, until 2025. Specialized in Preventive Medicine and Public Health. Specialized in Labor Medicine. Expert of the European Commission for assessing public health and health economics projects. Member of the Group of Prioritization of Treatments (GIP), Heath Emergency Preparedness and Response (HERA), European Commission. Member of the non-communicable diseases risk factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC) research group. Member of the CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain (until 2025). Editor-in Chief of Section “Vaccine Advancement, Efficacy and Safety” of the journal Vaccines. Editor of the journal Pharmacoeconomics Open. Associate Editor of Section "Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy" of the journal Frontiers in Immunology and the journal Frontiers in Oncology. Dr. Plans-Rubió has developed and participated in epidemiological and seroepidemiologic studies of measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis, tetanus, diphtheria, polio, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, tuberculosis, SARS-CoV-2 and influenza. He has authored and co-authored peer-reviewed publications on the evaluation of vaccines and vaccination programs, the epidemiology of infectious diseases, the epidemiology of factors associated with chronic diseases, the economic evaluation of drugs, and the strategies of prevention and control of vaccine-preventable diseases. Dr. Plans-Rubió is author of the book “Application of the cost-effectiveness of medicines and health programs in the health planning” (Elsevier).
