Ulan Bator, June 3 (IANS) Mongolia’s National Centre for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) on Tuesday confirmed 259 new cases of measles infection, raising the national tally to 5,075.

“All the latest confirmed cases were among school-age children who have had only one shot of the measles vaccine,” the NCCD said in a statement.

Meanwhile, 186 more measles patients have recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of recoveries to 3,333, it said.

In view of this, the NCCD advised parents to protect their children from a potentially severe disease by getting them two doses of the measles vaccine, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the World Health Organisation, measles is a highly contagious viral disease transmitted by respiratory droplets and direct contact. Measles spreads easily when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes. It can cause severe disease, complications, and even death.

Measles can affect anyone, but it is most common in children.

Measles infects the respiratory tract and then spreads throughout the body. Symptoms include a high fever, cough, runny nose and a rash all over the body.

Any non-immune person (not vaccinated or vaccinated but did not develop immunity) can become infected. Unvaccinated young children and pregnant women are at the highest risk of severe measles complications.

Being vaccinated is the best way to prevent getting sick with measles or spreading it to other people. The vaccine is safe and helps your body fight off the virus.

Before the introduction of the measles vaccine in 1963 and widespread vaccination, major epidemics occurred approximately every two to three years and caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year.

An estimated 107,500 people died from measles in 2023, mostly children under the age of five years, despite the availability of safe and cost-effective vaccines.

In 2023, as many as 74 per cent of children received both doses of the measles vaccine, and about 83 per cent of the world’s children received one dose of the measles vaccine by their first birthday.

Two doses of the vaccine are recommended to ensure immunity and prevent outbreaks, as not all children develop immunity from the first dose.

–IANS

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