Seven children with severe cases of measles are currently hospitalized in Temesvár/Timișoara, a worrying sign after a spike in infections back in 2017, local news portal tion. ro reports.
In November 2017, Temes/Timiș County had the highest registered measles cases (1,228) but was largely spared by the end-of-year epidemic due to the fact that most children had been vaccinated or were immune from having had contracted the disease previously. Measles is an infectious airborne disease, with one out of four cases requiring hospital treatment and a 0.1% fatality rate.
The number of measles cases is continuously rising in Europe : In 2013-2014, there were around 10,000 cases, but by 2017 the number had risen to 21,315 with 35 deaths. In 2018, the number of cases rose fourfold to 82,596, and in the first six months of 2019 alone, there were 90,000 cases.
Besides Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, Romania is among the European countries with the highest incidence of measles cases. The Romanian Public Health Authority (INSP) tallies the number of measles cases three times a month and the latest figure from January 10 shows a total 18,996 cases since the first outbreak in 2016.
Title image: The Victor Babeș Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Temesvár (source: tion.ro)
