This article appeared in The Mayo News on Tuesday, February 13, 2024.

Measles is back, and sadly, the disease has already claimed a life in Ireland, the first in over 20 years. To date, nine other suspected cases of the disease among children under nine have been notified to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), compared to a total of four cases in 2023.

The upswing in measles here is mirrored throughout Europe, with the 30,000 cases recorded in the World Health Organization’s European region in the first ten months of 2023 representing a staggering 3,000 percent increase on 2022’s 941 cases. How did this potentially deadly ‘Victorian’ disease, which had practically been eradicated, find its way back into our homes and respiratory systems?