Dangers from measles ‘worse than people think’

The preventable viral infection can lead to “many and varied” conditions such as hepatitis, appendicitis, viral meningitis and seizures, experts said in a medical journal.

One potential complication is a progressive neurological disorder that causes permanent nervous system damage and leads to a vegetative state, they said.

Despite measles being preventable, “unfounded fears about the vaccine have prompted it to re-emerge as a health scourge around the world”, the doctors from the Mater Dei Hospital in Malta said.

Declining vaccination levels have led to a decrease in what is known as “herd immunity” to measles, resulting in an increasing emergence which other experts have described as an “unprecedented” global crisis.

It caused more than 140,000 deaths last year, with most of them children under the age of five, separate figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO) suggest.