Tens of thousands of Czech children not vaccinated against measles

Tens of thousands of children in Czechia aren't vaccinated against measles, according to the Ministry of Health. The country is therefore failing to reach the 95 percent vaccination rate necessary to prevent the spread of the disease. At a press conference in Prague on Monday, the ministry revealed that there have been 28 measles cases so far this year, and a further wave of infections is expected in the autumn. Almost half the cases of measles in Czechia this year were caused by a single unvaccinated child who caught the disease abroad and brought it back home.

In 2020, the vaccination rate against measles in Czechia was only 87 percent, as there were over 14,000 children under two years of age who had not received their jab. In 2019, almost 600 people fell ill with the disease.