Medical staff with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) are responding to a surge of measles cases in countries across the globe. Children are especially vulnerable to contracting and dying from measles. “It’s kind of unprecedented that you have this many countries in outbreak this early in the year," said John Johnson, MSF medical vaccination referent for epidemic response.

Measles is so contagious that a single case in close living conditions like refugee camps can activate an outbreak response. That’s expected to happen more often than usual this year. Conflict, inequitable access to health care, the effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and other factors have caused 23 million more babies under one year old to miss routine vaccinations in 2020 than in 2019, according to the World Health Organization. 

The path forward is clear: Get vaccines into the arms of children who remain unprotected. Since 2006, MSF has vaccinated nearly 26 million children against measles, and this year our teams will continue their work to prevent and respond to outbreaks with both reactive and proactive vaccinations and treatment. Read more.