Measles epidemic in Italy, the regions most at risk: the numbers for 2024

Measles Italy, is it an epidemic in 2024? This is the question that many experts are asking themselves after the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) published the bulletin relating to the cases found in our country in the first three months of this year.
In total in Italy there were 213 reports of measles recorded by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in the first quarter of 2024; Going into more detail, 181 cases were laboratory confirmed, 9 probable and 23 possible cases.
In the month of March, 86 cases of measles were found in Italy, of which 66 were later confirmed in the laboratory.
In general, the ISS underlined that 88.2% of reported cases were not vaccinated at the time of infection, with the average age of those affected by this disease being 31 years.
The measles alarm does not only concern Italy, but all of Europe and Asia where, according to Unicef, a total of 30,601 cases were found in 2023 while, in the same period of 2022, there were 909 confirmed cases for an increase of 3,266%.
Which is why we are starting to talk about a measles epidemic, with the situation in Italy being monitored with great attention like that regarding dengue and the announced disease Measles forecasts in Italy: the most affected regions.
Again based on ISS monitoring for the first three months of 2024, in Italy the region where the most cases of measles have been found is Lazio with 44.9 cases per million inhabitants.
Behind Lazio, the other two regions where the most measles cases have been recorded are Sicily and Tuscany: put together, these three regions represented a total of 68% of the cases found in Italy from January to March.
In general, the national incidence of measles in the first quarter of 2024 was 14.5 cases per million inhabitants.
As regards the age of those who fell ill, 74.2% were aged between 15 and 64, but 11 cases were also recorded in children less than one year of age.
Measles: epidemic risk in Italy? Measles is an infectious disease – which can be fatal in its most serious form – caused by a virus of the morbillivirus genus and is generally also defined as a childhood disease since it usually affects children between 1 and 3 years old.
As is well known, measles is a highly contagious disease that is transmitted – only in humans – by air and generally through coughing, sneezing or saliva.
The increase in cases can be attributed to the decrease in the number of people vaccinated.
In Italy in 2022, vaccination coverage for this disease was 92% of the population for the first dose and 86% for the second, down 1 and 3% respectively compared to 2018.
These data caused the 'Italy is below the threshold of optimal vaccine coverage which is at least 95% with two doses and homogeneous across the entire territory.
The reasons would be the problems related to the Covid pandemic and the decline in confidence in vaccination.
“The measles epidemic has started – the head of infectious diseases at the San Martino hospital in Genoa, Matteo Bassetti, told Adnkronos Health – It's just the beginning, the worst is to come and I fear it will be around the turn of the summer.
The affected population is unvaccinated or with only one dose, between 15 and 40 years of age, a group already highlighted by the ECDC report which recorded 30,000 cases in 2023.
It strikes me that no one is worried about complications: it is not a quiet and manageable disease, if you catch it in adulthood it can be serious and cause complications".