Experts say the US anti-vaccine stance is responsible for the high rates of measles infection across the continent Global health

gGovernments across Latin America are stepping up efforts to vaccinate their populations against measles, as an outbreak in North America leads to increased 34-fold increase in the number of cases that have been reported in the area this year.

Measles cases have risen around the world To the highest level in 25 years, due to low vaccine coverage and the spread of misinformation about vaccine safety. However, there is additional concern in parts of Latin America about unequal access to health care and the alarming situation in the United States, which is facing its worst measles outbreak in decades after a rollback of vaccine policy led by Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“The political position of the United States regarding health and vaccination is infuriating,” said Rosanna Richtman, an infectious disease physician and coordinator of the Immunization Committee of the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases. “It’s a problem for us.”

Measles was successfully eradicated in the Americas in 2016, and Then again in 2024But the continent now At risk of losing its measles-free status. A total of 11,668 cases have been reported in 10 countries in North and Latin America, according to the report Latest data From the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

More than half of these cases are in the United States and Canada, with three deaths in the United States and two in Canada so far.

Mexico is the most affected country in Latin America, with more than 4,800 cases 22 deathsFollowed by Bolivia with 354 cases. Other countries, including Brazil, Belize and Paraguay, are dealing with a few dozen infections linked to imported cases.

Concern about rising case numbers in North America has prompted the Brazilian Ministry of Health to focus more on the highly contagious disease A national vaccination campaign has been launched For children and teenagers in October. The vaccine is also given to adults who did not receive the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine as children.

Brazil also has protocols in place to quickly respond to individual cases. When a nine-year-old boy tested positive for measles on October 7 in Varzia Grande, health authorities were quick to act. Nurses equipped with protective equipment visited the child’s school and quickly implemented “ring vaccination”, vaccinating everyone who had come into contact with her.

City health teams also went door to door to identify unvaccinated people and held vaccination campaigns at a shopping mall and the international airport.

Richtman said the biggest fear was imported cases. “We are more concerned about Brazilians traveling to Europe, the United States or Canada [catching measles and bringing it back]“More than those who live here,” she said.

Amira Ross, a professor of global health and epidemiology at George Mason University in Virginia, agreed that the outbreak in the United States poses a threat to neighboring countries.

“Now all of a sudden, you’re more likely to meet someone with some kind of infectious disease [in the US]. “You visit the United States, you come home with souvenirs — and you might even come home with measles,” she said.

The first case of measles in Mexico was imported in February from Texas by a Mennonite boy who had not been vaccinated. The first cases in Bolivia also spread through enclaves of unvaccinated people living in Mennonite settlements.

Mennonites are Anabaptist Christian communities of European descent who reject many aspects of modern life, including vaccines.

“The presence of close-knit communities that are often hesitant to receive vaccinations and have large influxes,” said Daniel Salas, Executive Director of the Bahu Special Mass Immunization Programme. [of people] “From one country to another across the region, these are aggravating factors.”

Salas said health authorities should identify communities resistant to vaccination and direct their efforts there.

There is no cure for measles, which can lead to serious complications and even death, but it is easily preventable with two doses of the MMR vaccine, which provides 97% protection.

Measles, mumps and rubella vaccination rates fell in Latin America during the Covid pandemic and the years before it, but have recovered since 2022, reaching 86% last year, according to World Bank. However, this remains below the 95% threshold needed for herd immunity, with lags in the uptake of second doses and significant disparities between and within countries.

A lack of information and access to health care has contributed to low vaccination rates, but doctors also blame the influence of the growing anti-vaccination movement in the United States.

“A lot of South American countries are looking to the United States,” said Carlos Paz, chief of infectious diseases at the Mario Ortiz Suarez Children’s Hospital in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, where 80% of the country’s cases have been reported.

“The population sees what an American minister is saying about vaccines, and some people start saying: ‘Well, we shouldn’t get vaccinated here either,’” he said.

While the US Secretary of Health did MMR vaccine endorsement After the outbreak in Texas in April, Kennedy also spread misinformation about it Misinformation about measles treatment.

This month, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, now led by a biotech investor, suggested that the MMR vaccine should be given in three separate injections, even though the safety and effectiveness of combination doses has been proven by decades of research and rule-breaking. The CDC’s own long-standing advice.

Bolivia declared a national health emergency in June, extended school holidays to avoid contact between children, and launched a massive vaccination campaign, relying in part on donations from Brazil, India and Chile. But coverage in October was still there It only reached 45%While the government still has 1.6 million doses available.

“We have campaigned to increase the vaccination rate,” Paz said. “Every doctor, every pediatrician, is a soldier defending vaccination.”