In Flanders, the counter is now on 95 measles cases in 2025. Most reports of the infectious disease come from the province of Antwerp (60 cases). It has been since 2011 that the measles were circulating so strongly in Flanders. 60 cases were registered in March 2011.
The Department of Care reports in a press release that the number of reports in the city of Antwerp continues to rise. For the most part, it concerns people who have not had any vaccination dose against measles. It is also mainly children under 9 who are affected. In a number of schools where infected children live, the CLB offers vaccination moments for children up to 12 years old who have not yet been vaccinated.
The measles virus is one of the most contagious viruses that exist. Those who get infected can get a high fever, suffer from coughing and the typical spicy skin rash on the body. In the worst case, the disease can lead to brain inflammation, where children and adults can have a disability or die. Some of the children who have had measles also loses the immune memory. Then they are more susceptible to diseases that they have experienced before.
The rise of measles in Europe started last year. More than 35,000 cases were reported in 2024, which was ten times more than in 2023. The most affected group are children under one year. They still have to get their first vaccination dose (planned around the first birthday). But older children and adults were also hit in large numbers last year. The lion’s share of people who received measles (87 percent) was unaccinated.
The measles continue to rage through Europe this year and even now people who are not (or not completely) vaccinated are the greatest risk. Four deaths of measles patients have already been reported in Romania this year.
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No deaths have been reported in Flanders so far. But here too, several (unvaccinated) children had to be admitted to the hospital with measles, sometimes in a serious condition. Of the reports from Antwerp, about one in 2 cases currently leads to a hospitalization, some of which also need intensive care.
The US is also struggling with the worst outbreak of measles in 25 years. The epicenter is Texas. Two children died in that state and almost 700 others have become infected. Scientists warn that measles in the US can become endemic again. They insist that US government officials express their support for the very effective vaccine against measles. But the American Minister of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Repeated misleading and nonsensical claims about vaccines this week, including that the measles vaccine would contain cells of aborted fetuses and that the vaccination against BOF would not work.
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