Antwerp hospital group ZAS is seeing an alarming rise in the number of children with measles, a disease that can be deadly. ‘The rise is due to an increasingly lower vaccination rate among children in the city of Antwerp,’ says paediatric infectiologist Daan Van Brusselen.
‘Unprecedented’ measles outbreak in Antwerp after vaccination uptake slumped
Colin Clapson
Published:
In recent weeks, ZAS diagnosed measles in 15 children. Two of them were admitted to the intensive care unit. Measles is on the rise, according to the hospital group. In the past 3 months, the number of children with measles at ZAS was already higher than in the whole of 2024.
‘Last night, 4 children were brought in with measles. We have never experienced this before,’ says Daan Van Brusselen, paediatric infectiologist at ZAS and Antwerp University.
Of the 47 confirmed cases of measles in Flanders, 40 per cent are in Antwerp province. "We think this is because of the very low vaccination coverage. We know this because the patients we see in central Antwerp are young children and are not sufficiently protected. In the rest of Flanders, all age groups are affected."
Doctors are now stressing the vital importance of getting children vaccinated.
Group protection
You can contract measles if you have not had measles before and have not been vaccinated or have been incompletely vaccinated against the disease. People who have been vaccinated twice are not at risk. In Flanders, all children are offered a measles shot at one year of age and a repeat shot between the ages of 7 and 9. People aged between 30 and 45 years are advised to check their vaccination status. This age group often received only one vaccination as a child. Group protection is crucial, but this is where there is now a problem.
‘We see a growing group of children who are not getting a measles vaccination or second shot,’ says Van Brusselen. ‘This is dangerous because in this way measles can circulate in nurseries and affect the very young, who are still too young for a vaccine."
Hugely contagious and deadly
‘Measles is particularly contagious,’ warns specialist Van Brusselen. ‘Every patient with measles is going to infect 12 to 18 unvaccinated people. By comparison, with Covid, the figure was only 1 to 1.5. Measles is just about the most contagious disease we know."
"The first symptoms of measles are a high fever, a cough and red, inflamed eyes. 3 to 7 days after the onset of the first symptoms, a rough rash appears behind the ears and spreads over the body. Afterwards, complications may occur including pneumonia, diarrhoea and even encephalitis."
In the worst case, you can die from the disease, even in Belgium, Antwerp doctors warn. ‘Recently in the United States, 2 children aged 6 and 8 who were not vaccinated died. If you are unlucky enough to contract a brain infection, you can also suffer neurological damage afterwards’