Even after leaving 2019 behind, we haven’t eliminated all the disease outbreaks in recent years. According to new estimates from the World Health Organization and CDC, “more than 140,000 people died from measles in 2018” worldwide.
The most noteworthy outbreaks have come from the United States and Europe. Although, smaller regions are also struggling with measles.
With a population of under 200,000 people, the southern Pacific island Samoa has been hit with a devastating outbreak of measles. Since October of 2019, there have been nearly 4,900 reported cases of measles. Officials have reported 71 deaths, most of them children under five.