UN agencies urge Bosnia to vaccinate kids after two die in measles outbreak

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF on Tuesday urged Bosnia's authorities to raise the measles vaccination rate among children after two adolescents in the Balkan country died in an outbreak of the highly infectious respiratory illness.

Bosnia has the highest number of measles infections in the Balkans, with more than 7,000 estimated cases recorded since the first outbreak last December. Neighboring Montenegro, in comparison, has only eight cases.

Additionally, the national immunization rate for measles in Bosnia is only 55%, compared with 90% in neighboring Croatia.

"There is no clearer sign of a breakdown in immunization coverage than an increase in measles cases," Erwin Cooreman, the WHO's special representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said in a statement.

Measles, an airborne virus that mostly affects those under the age of five, can have a devastating effect on children's health, with sometimes fatal consequences, and is preventable with two doses of a vaccine, according to the WHO.

"In 2024, there is no justification for children to be at risk of contracting this preventable disease," said Marc Lucet, UNICEF's representative in Bosnia, calling on health officials to make stronger efforts to vaccinate children.

A 17-year-old boy with measles died in July in a hospital in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, where an epidemic was declared after more than 4,000 cases were recorded this year. An 18-year old boy who contracted the virus died in the central town of Zenica a week later.

Neither was vaccinated against measles.

UNICEF and the European Union are helping and funding a campaign for childhood immunization in Bosnia's autonomous Bosniak-Croat federation, where most measles cases have been recorded.

In February, the WHO warned that more than half the world's countries will be at high or very high risk of measles outbreaks by the end of the year unless urgent preventative measures were taken.

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Additional reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Paul Simao)