News outlets report on new data on measles immunizations released by WHO for the Measles & Rubella Initiative, and published in the WHO’s Weekly Epidemiological Report and the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Agence France-Presse: Measles vaccines save 17 mn lives since 2000, but progress stalled: WHO
“Measles vaccines have saved more than 17 million lives in the past 15 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday, warning though that immunization coverage had marked time since 2010. The number of measles-related deaths have plunged nearly 80 percent since the turn of the century, falling from 546,800 in 2000 to 114,900 last year, the U.N.’s health agency said in a statement…” (11/12).

Newsweek: We’re Close to Eliminating Measles Worldwide, but Not Close Enough
“…In the reporting countries, there were approximately 20.6 million infants who did not receive vaccines to prevent the measles virus. About 11.6 million of those lived in six countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Pakistan…” (Firger, 11/12).