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Under an earlier report [1] I posed questions about how the World Health Organisation compiles its measles data [2,3]. Of what we were being told how many cases were merely reported, how many confirmed, how many just projections, how much of the trend was an artefact of looking for cases?
It may be noted that no one replied to me apart from a further polite enquiry from Dr Anand [4]. And now we have another report of what the WHO says [5] but it is information which is currently impossible to assess for the reasons already outlined, and coincidentally in the same year as the WHO named "vaccine hesitancy" as a "threat" to global health [6].
[1] Elisabeth Mahase, 'Measles cases rise 300% globally in first few months of 2019',
BMJ 2019; 365 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l1810 (Published 16 April 2019)
[2] John Stone, 'Re: Measles cases rise 300% globally in first few months of 2019 - how long is a piece of string?', 17 April 2019, https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l1810/rr
[5] Elisabeth Mahase, 'Measles cases at highest point since 2006 as outbreaks continue to spread'
BMJ 2019; 366 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l5141 (Published 13 August 2019)
What controls are there on this data?
Under an earlier report [1] I posed questions about how the World Health Organisation compiles its measles data [2,3]. Of what we were being told how many cases were merely reported, how many confirmed, how many just projections, how much of the trend was an artefact of looking for cases?
It may be noted that no one replied to me apart from a further polite enquiry from Dr Anand [4]. And now we have another report of what the WHO says [5] but it is information which is currently impossible to assess for the reasons already outlined, and coincidentally in the same year as the WHO named "vaccine hesitancy" as a "threat" to global health [6].
[1] Elisabeth Mahase, 'Measles cases rise 300% globally in first few months of 2019',
BMJ 2019; 365 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l1810 (Published 16 April 2019)
[2] John Stone, 'Re: Measles cases rise 300% globally in first few months of 2019 - how long is a piece of string?', 17 April 2019, https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l1810/rr
[3] John Stone, 'Re: Measles cases rise 300% globally in first few months of 2019', 23 April 2019,
https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l1810/rr-3
[4] JK Anand, 'Re: Measles cases rise 300% globally in first few months of 2019. Ms Mahase’s report', 17 April 2019, https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l1810/rr-1
[5] Elisabeth Mahase, 'Measles cases at highest point since 2006 as outbreaks continue to spread'
BMJ 2019; 366 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l5141 (Published 13 August 2019)
[6] https://www.who.int/emergencies/ten-threats-to-global-health-in-2019
Competing interests: No competing interests