More cases of measles during the past 2 week than during the whole of last year
During the first two weeks of February there have been more cases of measles diagnosed in the Brussels-Capital Region that during the whole of 2018. Doctors in the capital have reported 14 new cases of the highly infectious disease since the start of the month.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation has declared a measles epidemic and the Brussels Minister responsible for Health Didier Gosuin (Francophone federalist) has announced measures aimed at stemming the spread of measles.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO) figures the number of cases of measles in Europe is on the rise. Last year there were four times the number of cases of measles in Europe as there were in 2017. However
However, Belgium didn’t follow this trend and last year there were just 120 cases of measles compared with 369 in 2017.
However, cases of the disease are on the rise in Brussels with 14 new cases having been reported during the past two weeks. This compares to 13 cases during the whole of 2018.
The Brussels Minister responsible for Health Didier Gosuin has said that he will be taking measures aimed at stemming the spread of measles in the capital. However, he adds that beyond that he is powerless to do much to address the issue. “I can’t make unilateral decision about thing like this. The measures applied need to be the same across the whole of Belgium”, Mr Gosuin added.