Agencies renew pledge to tackle measles after target to reduce deaths by 90% is missed

Global health organisations have announced that they are redoubling efforts to tackle measles in light of new evidence showing that a target to reduce the number of deaths from the disease by 90% has not been reached.

The announcement was made at a press conference on 23 April to coincide with the online publication of a paper in the Lancet (doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60522-4) showing that mortality from measles around the world fell by 74% between 2000 and 2010, short of the 90% target agreed by the World Health Assembly in 2005. The estimated number of deaths worldwide from measles fell from 535 300 in 2000 to 139 300 in 2010.

India accounted for nearly half (47%) of all measles …