These advances in the battle against cancer could lead to new clinical laboratory screening tests and other diagnostics for early detection of the disease
As Dark Daily reported in part one of this story, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has identified 12 new breakthroughs in the fight against cancer that will be of interest to pathologists and clinical laboratory managers.
As we noted in part one, the WEF originally announced these breakthroughs in an article first published in May 2022 and then updated in October 2024. According to the WEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) identified cancer as a “leading cause of death globally” that “kills around 10 million people a year.”
The WEF is a non-profit organization base in Switzerland that, according to its website, “engages political, business, academic, civil society and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.”
Monday’s ebrief focused on four advances identified by WEF that should be of particular interest to clinical laboratory leaders. Here are the others.
Personalized Cancer Vaccines in England
The National Health Service (NHS) in England, in collaboration with the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, has launched a program to facilitate development of personalized cancer vaccines. The NHS Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad will seek to match cancer patients with clinical trials for the vaccines. The Launch Pad will be based on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology, which is the same technology used in many COVID-19 vaccines.
The BBC reported that these cancer vaccines are treatments, not a form of prevention. BioNTech receives a sample of a patient’s tumor and then formulates a vaccine that exposes the cancer cells to the patient’s immune system. Each vaccine is tailored for the specific mutations in the patient’s tumor.
“I think this is a new era. The science behind this makes sense,” medical oncologist Victoria Kunene, MBChB, MRCP, MSc (above), trial principal investigator from Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) involved in an NHS program to develop personalized cancer vaccines, told the BBC. “My hope is this will become the standard of care. It makes sense that we can have something that can help patients reduce their risk of cancer recurrence.” These clinical trials could lead to new clinical laboratory screening tests for cancer vaccines. (Photo copyright: Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.)
Seven-Minute Cancer Treatment Injection
NHS England has also begun treating eligible cancer patients with under-the-skin injections of atezolizumab, an immunotherapy marketed under the brand name Tecentriq, Reuters reported. The drug is usually delivered intravenously, a procedure that can take 30 to 60 minutes. Injecting the drug takes just seven minutes, Reuters noted, saving time for patients and cancer teams.
The drug is designed to stimulate the patient’s immune system to attack cancer cells, including breast, lung, liver, and bladder cancers.
AI Advances in India
One WEF component—the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR)—aims to harness emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality. In India, the organization says the Center is seeking to accelerate use of AI-based risk profiling to “help screen for common cancers like breast cancer, leading to early diagnosis.”
Researchers are also exploring the use of AI to “analyze X-rays to identify cancers in places where imaging experts might not be available.”
Using AI to Assess Lung Cancer Risk
Early-stage lung cancer is “notoriously hard to detect,” WEF observed. To help meet this challenge, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed an AI model known as Sybil that analyzes low-dose computed tomography scans to predict a patient’s risk of getting the disease within the next six years. It does so without a radiologist’s intervention, according to a press release.
Using Genomics to Identify Cancer-Causing Mutations
In what has been described as the “largest study of whole genome sequencing data,” researchers at the University of Cambridge in the UK announced they have discovered a “treasure trove” of information about possible causes of cancer.
Using data from England’s 100,000 Genomes Project, the researchers analyzed the whole genome sequences of 12,000 NHS cancer patients.
This allowed them “to detect patterns in the DNA of cancer, known as ‘mutational signatures,’ that provide clues about whether a patient has had a past exposure to environmental causes of cancer such as smoking or UV light, or has internal, cellular malfunctions,” according to a press release.
The researchers also identified 58 new mutational signatures, “suggesting that there are additional causes of cancer that we don’t yet fully understand,” the press release states.
The study appeared in April 2022 in the journal Science.
Validation of CAR-T-Cell Therapy
CAR-T-cell therapy “involves removing and genetically altering immune cells, called T cells, from cancer patients,” WEF explained. “The altered cells then produce proteins called chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), which can recognize and destroy cancer cells.”
The therapy appeared to receive validation in 2022 when researchers at the University of Pennsylvania published an article in the journal Nature noting that two early recipients of the treatment were still in remission after 12 years.
However, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in 2023 that it was investigating reports of T-cell malignancies, including lymphoma, in patients who had received the treatment.
WEF observed that “the jury is still out as to whether the therapy is to blame but, as a precaution, the drug packaging now carries a warning.”
Breast Cancer Drug Repurposed for Prevention
England’s NHS announced in 2023 that anastrozole, a breast cancer drug, will be available to post-menopausal women to help reduce their risk of developing the disease.
“Around 289,000 women at moderate or high risk of breast cancer could be eligible for the drug, and while not all will choose to take it, it is estimated that if 25% do, around 2,000 cases of breast cancer could potentially be prevented in England, while saving the NHS around £15 million in treatment costs,” the NHS stated.
The tablet, which is off patent, has been used for many years to treat breast cancer, the NHS added. Anastrozole blocks the body’s production of the enzyme aromatase, reducing levels of the hormone estrogen.
Big Advance in Treating Cervical Cancer
In October 2024, researchers announced results from a large clinical trial demonstrating that a new approach to treating cervical cancer—one that uses currently available therapies—can reduce the risk of death by 40% and the risk of relapsing by 36%.
“This is the biggest improvement in outcome in this disease in over 20 years,” said Mary McCormack, PhD, clinical oncologist at the University College London and lead investigator in the trial.
The scientists published their findings in The Lancet.
Pathologists and clinical lab managers will want to keep track of these 12 breakthrough advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer highlighted by the WEF. They will likely lead to new screening tests for the disease and could save many lives.
Findings could lead to new clinical laboratory cancer screening tests for BRCA1 and BRCA2 among specific population regions
Descendants of a remote Scottish island are much more likely to carry a cancer-causing BRCA2 gene than the rest of the UK. That’s according to a study conducted by the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. For pathologists and clinical laboratory managers, the study’s findings demonstrate how ongoing research into the genetic makeup of subpopulations will find groups that have higher risk for specific health conditions than the general population. Thus, diagnosticians can pay closer attention to screening these groups to achieve early diagnosis and intervention.
“The findings follow earlier research from the Viking Genes study that found a cancer-causing variant in the related BRCA1 gene, common among people from Orkney [a group of islands off Scotland’s northern coast],” noted a University of Edinburgh news release.
In their latest research, the genetic scientists discovered that the BRCA2 gene can be found in one in every 40 people with heritage from the island of Whalsay in Scotland’s Shetland island group. This gene is one of the most common genes that can be linked to breast cancer and ovarian cancer in women and breast and prostate cancer in men.
Those who inherit the BRCA2 gene have a significantly higher risk of developing certain cancers than the general population. For example, according to the National Cancer Institute, more than 60% of women who inherit the gene will develop breast cancer in their lifetimes.
The volunteers in the Viking Genes study have a risk of having a BRCA2 gene that is 130 times higher than the general UK population. According to the BBC, geneticists believe the gene can be traced back to one family from the island of Whalsay before 1750.
“It is very important to understand that just two gene changes account for more than 90% of the inherited cancer risk from BRCA variants in Orkney and Shetland. This is in stark contrast to the situation in the general UK population, where 369 variants would need to be tested to account for the same proportion of cancer risk from BRCA genes. Any future screening program for the Northern Isles should therefore be very cost-effective,” said James Wilson, DPhil, FRCPE (above), Professor of Human Genetics at University of Edinburgh and leader of the study, in a news release. Clinical laboratories in the UK will be involved in those screenings. (Photo copyright: Scottish Genomes Partnership.)
Early Diagnosis Brings Hope to Families
The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) offers genetic testing to relatives of people with a known BRCA variant. Individuals with at least one Whalsay grandparent, and who have a close family history of breast, ovarian, or prostate cancer, can also request NHS testing.
As the BBC reported, University of Edinburgh’s discovery has given families answers and hope for the future. Individuals who fit the criteria for being at risk of inheriting the BRCA gene can narrow their testing and work more specifically on preventative measures with their doctors.
Christine Glaser, a woman from Lerwick in Shetland, learned she carried the BRCA gene after participating in the study. Though the Viking genes research took place nearly a decade ago, scientific understanding of genes has improved allowing geneticists to draw new conclusions from previous studies.
Although Glaser lost her sister to ovarian cancer, she and her family were unaware of their heightened genetic risk.
“I got offered preventative measures so I could get my ovaries removed and I could get a mastectomy. So, that’s what I did … when I got my ovaries removed, they checked them and there was no cancer, but then I had a mammogram and they found cancer,” she told the BBC. Glaser’s cancer was successfully treated thanks to early detection.
Closing Gap in Genetic Testing
“This BRCA2 variant in Whalsay I think arose prior to 1750. This is why these things become so common in given places because many people descend from a couple quite far back in the past, and if they have a cancer variant, then a significant number of people today—five or even 10 generations later—will have it. This is true everywhere in Scotland, it’s just magnified in these small places,” said James Wilson, DPhil, FRCPE, Professor of Human Genetics at University of Edinburgh, who led the study on Viking genes that found individuals with familial ties to two small Scottish communities may be at a higher risk of having a cancer-causing gene.
Wilson hopes to see testing for these genetic abnormalities become more common for these at-risk communities.
“The Ashkenazi Jewish community have BRCA1 and BRCA2 variants that also have a frequency of about one in 40,” he told the BBC. “The Ashkenazi Jewish population in England are able to take part in genetic testing for these genes but that’s not yet the case in Scotland.”
The findings of the most recent University of Edinburgh genetic study are very new. Future developments and offerings from the NHS may be influenced by the results.
Deeper understanding about the genetic make-up of certain population subgroups could lead to new genetic personalized medicine and preventative testing for those at risk of hereditary cancer. In turn, it could also encourage individuals to seek preventative care earlier. Thus, pathologists and clinical laboratory managers should keep an eye on these developments and be prepared to work with geneticists who may develop new screening methods for BRCA1 and BRCA2.
Declining health of UK’s population also affecting performance of the country’s national health service, report notes
England’s National Health Service (NHS) is “in serious trouble” due to long waiting times, outdated technology, misallocated resources, and numerous other problems, with dire consequences for the country’s populace. That’s according to a new report by NHS surgeon and former Health Minister Lord Ara Darzi, OM KBE FRS FMedSci HonFREng, who was tasked by the United Kingdom’s new Labor government to investigate the ailing healthcare system. His report may contain lessons for US healthcare—including clinical laboratories—as well.
“Although I have worked in the NHS for more than 30 years, I have been shocked by what I have found during this investigation—not just in the health service but in the state of the nation’s health,” Darzi stated in a UK government press release. “We want to deliver high quality care for all but far too many people are waiting for too long and in too many clinical areas, quality of care has gone backwards.”
Many of the problems he identified relate to wait times.
“From access to GPs (general practitioners) and to community and mental health services, on to accident and emergency, and then to waits not just for more routine surgery and treatment but for cancer and cardiac services, waiting time targets are being missed,” he wrote in his report.
For example, “as of June 2024, more than one million people were waiting for community services, including more than 50,000 people who had been waiting for over a year, 80% of whom are children and young people,” he wrote.
Accident and emergency care (A/E) “is in an awful state,” the report noted, “with A/E queues more than doubling from an average of just under 40 people on a typical evening in April 2009 to over 100 in April 2024. One in 10 patients are now waiting for 12 hours or more.”
“In the last 15 years, the NHS was hit by three shocks—austerity and starvation of investment, confusion caused by top-down reorganization, and then the pandemic which came with resilience at an all-time low. Two out of three of those shocks were choices made in Westminster,” said NHS surgeon and former Health Minister Lord Ara Darzi in a government press release. “It took more than a decade for the NHS to fall into disrepair so it’s going to take time to fix it. But we in the NHS have turned things around before, and I’m confident we will do it again.” (Photo copyright: Health Data Research UK.)
Delays in Other Critical Tests
Genetic test results are lagging as well. “In 2024, more than 35,000 genomic tests are being completed each month but only around 60% on time,” Darzi wrote.
He also noted that “only around 5% of eligible patients with brain cancer are able to access whole genome sequencing (WGS), which is important for treatment selection.” Just two-thirds (65.8%) get their first treatment within 62 days, and more than 30% wait more than 31 days for radical radiotherapy, according to the report.
Overall, “the UK has appreciably higher cancer mortality rates than other countries, with no progress whatsoever made in diagnosing cancer at stage one and two between 2013 and 2021,” he wrote.
Patients have also experienced delays in access to cardiovascular treatment. For example, in 2013-2014, high-risk heart attack patients waited an average of 114 minutes for intervention to unblock an artery, Darzi noted in his report. However, in 2022-2023, the average time was 146 minutes, a 28% increase.
“For the most part, once people are in the system, they receive high quality care,” he wrote. “But there are some important areas of concerns, such as maternity care, where there have been a succession of scandals and inquiries.”
Key Factors Leading to Delays
Darzi pointed to four key factors that have led to the problems.
Lack of funding. “The 2010s was the most austere decade since the NHS was founded, with spending growing at around 1% in real terms,” Darzi wrote, compared with a long-term average of 3.4%.
One result was that administrators took funds from the capital budget to cover day-to-day needs, leading to “crumbling buildings that hit productivity,” he noted.
“The backlog maintenance bill now stands at more than £11.6 billion and a lack of capital means that there are too many outdated scanners, too little automation, and parts of the NHS are yet to enter the digital era,” he wrote.
The COVID-19 pandemic. Given the preceding “decade of austerity,” NHS had fewer resources to deal with the crisis than most other high-income health systems, he wrote. As a result, NHS “delayed, cancelled, or postponed far more routine care during the pandemic than any comparable health system.” This led to “a bigger backlog than other health systems.”
Lack of patient and staff engagement. Patient satisfaction “has declined and the number of complaints has increased, while patients are less empowered to make choices about their care,” he wrote. In addition, “too many staff have become disengaged, and there are distressingly high-levels of sickness absence—as much as one working month a year for each nurse and each midwife working in the NHS.”
Management structures and systems. Darzi laid considerable blame on the UK’s Health and Social Care Act of 2012, which led to what he described as “a costly and distracting process of almost constant reorganization of the ‘headquarters’ and ‘regulatory’ functions of the NHS.”
One consequence, he wrote, is that too many clinicians have been deployed in hospitals instead of community-based care, despite years of promises by successive governments to put more emphasis on the latter.
National Health in Decline
Along with issues within the NHS, “the health of the nation has deteriorated and that impacts its performance,” Darzi wrote. “There has been a surge in multiple long-term conditions, and, particularly among children and young people, in mental health needs. Fewer children are getting the immunizations they need to protect their health, and fewer adults are participating in some of the key screening programs, such as for breast cancer.”
Darzi’s investigation included frontline visits to NHS facilities as well as focus groups with NHS staff and patients, the press release states. He also consulted an expert reference group consisting of more than 70 organizations and examined analyses from NHS England, the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care, and external groups.
It is interesting that there is no mention of anatomic pathology and medical laboratory testing services in Lord Darzi’s report. As reported in recent years by new outlets in the United Kingdom, delays in cancer diagnoses—often as long as six months—were severe enough that, in 2018, the NHS announced funding for a program to create a national digital pathology network to improve productivity of pathologists and shorten wait times for the results of cancer tests.
This AI platform has the potential to also reduce workload of radiologists, but also of anatomic pathologists and oncologists allowing them to be more productive
When the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) recently tested an artificial intelligence (AI) platform’s ability to analyze mammograms, the AI found early signs of breast cancer that “human doctors” had previously missed, the BBC reported. This level of ability by AI might soon be adapted to aid overworked anatomic pathologists and cancer doctors in the United Kingdom.
Out of 10,000 mammograms MIA analyzed, the AI platform found “tiny signs of breast cancer in 11 women” which had not been spotted during earlier examinations, the BBC noted, adding that the cancers “were practically invisible to the human eye.”
This is a significant development in AI’s role in healthcare. Anatomic pathologists and clinical laboratory leaders will note that ongoing advancements in AI are enabling technology developers to apply their solutions to assessing radiology images, as well as in whole slide imaging used in digital pathology. In the UK, use of AI, the BBC noted, may also help ease doctor’s workloads.
“This is just the beginning of our work with Kheiron,” said Ben Glocker, PhD (above), Professor in Machine Learning for Imaging at Imperial College London and Head of ML Research at Kheiron Medical, in a news release. “We are actively working on new methodologies for the safe deployment and continuous monitoring of MIA to support a US and UK rollout. We are working hard to make sure that as many women as possible will benefit from the use of this new technology within the next year.” AI tools such as MIA may soon take much of the load from anatomic pathologists and radiologists. (Photo copyright: Imperial College London.)
MIA Cloud-based AI Platform
Kheiron was founded in 2016 and MIA was named one of the seven biggest medical breakthroughs in 2023 by ABC News. A study conducted by Imperial College London in 2023 found that MIA “could significantly increase the early detection of breast cancers in a European healthcare setting by up to 13%,” according to an Imperial news release.
“The study was conducted over three phases (two pilot phases and a live roll-out). Overall across the three phases, the AI reader found 24 more cancers than the standard human reading—a 7% relative increase—and resulted in 70 more women recalled (0.28% relative increase),” the news release reported. “Of the additional recalls, six (initial pilot), 13 (extended pilot), and 11 (live use) additional cancers were found, increasing relative cancer detection rate by 13%, 10%, and 5% respectively. [The researchers] found that 83% of the additional cancers detected using MIA in real clinical practice were invasive, showing that MIA can detect cancers where early detection is particularly vital.”
Supported by Microsoft’s Azure Cloud, MIA came together over six years based on training encompassing millions of mammograms worldwide, Healthcare Digital reported.
“AI tools are generally pretty good at spotting symptoms of a specific disease if they are trained on enough data to enable them to be identified. This means feeding the program with as many different anonymized images of those symptoms as possible, from as diverse a range of people as possible,” Sarah Kerruish, Chief Strategy Officer, Kheiron, told Healthcare Digital.
MIA has been trained to “recognize subtle patterns and anomalies” that can point to “cancerous cells even in their earliest stages of development,” Dataconomy reported.
MIA Finds Early Cancer Signs
In the pilot study, MIA examined mammograms from 10,889 women. Each image had previously been reviewed by two radiologists, the BBC reported.
Findings include the following according to Healthcare Digital:
MIA “flagged” all people the physicians previously identified with symptoms.
The AI platform discovered 11 people with cancer the doctors did not identify.
The cancer MIA discovered—and the doctors did not—suggested cancer in early stages.
So, how did the doctors miss the cancer that MIA spotted? Gerald Lip, MD, Clinical Director for Breast Screening in North East Scotland who led the pilot study for the NHS, told Healthcare Digital, “part of the power of AI is it’s not prone to exhaustion or distraction.
“There is an element of fatigue,” he said. “You get disruptions, someone’s coming in, someone’s chatting in the background. There are lots of things that can probably throw you off your regular routine as well. And in those days when you have been distracted, you go, ‘how on earth did I miss that?’ It does happen.”
Lip is also the Chief Investigator in the Mammography Artificial Intelligence Project in the Industrial Center for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Diagnostics in Scotland.
“I see MIA as a friend and an augmentation to my practice,” he told Healthcare Digital. “MIA isn’t perfect. It had no access to patient history so [it] would flag cysts that had already been identified by previous scans and designated harmless.”
AI as a Safety Net
In the 2023 study, researchers from Imperial College London deployed MIA as an extra reader for mammograms of 25,065 women who visited screening sites in Hungary between April 2021 and January 2023, according to a news release.
“Our prospective real-world usage data in Hungary provides evidence for a significant, measurable increase of early breast cancer detection when MIA is used in clinical practice,” said Peter Kecskemethy, PhD, CEO and co-founder of Kheiron Medical, in the news release.
“Our study shows that AI can act as an effective safety net—a tool to prevent subtler signs of cancer from falling through the cracks,” said Ben Glocker, PhD, Professor in Machine Learning for Imaging at Imperial College London and Head of ML Research at Kheiron Medical, in the news release.
More studies are needed before MIA can be used in clinical settings. Nevertheless, use of AI in radiology—specifically mammograms—where the AI tool can identify very small cancers typically undetectable by radiologists, would be a boon to cancer doctors and the patients they treat.
So far, the research suggests that the AI-powered MIA has benefits to deployment in breast cancer screening. Eventually, it may also make impressive contributions to medical diagnosis and patient care, particularly if MIA eventually proves to be effective at analyzing the whole slide images used by anatomic pathologists.
Clinical laboratory managers should prepare for an increase in demand for measles testing, especially for children
Clinical laboratory managers should be on the alert for new cases of measles. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported a surge in the highly infectious disease. Public health experts pointed to declining vaccination coverage as the primary cause. Officials in other countries have also reported outbreaks.
In 2000, the US declared that measles had been eliminated, meaning it “is no longer constantly present in this country,” the CDC stated on its website. However, the agency noted travelers can still bring the disease into the country and that there have been sporadic outbreaks since then.
In a new study, published April 11, 2024, in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), the agency reported that it was notified of 97 confirmed cases in the first quarter of 2024. That compares to an average of five cases during the first quarters of 2020 through 2023, the agency stated. In total, 338 cases were reported to the CDC between Jan. 1, 2020, and March 28, 2024, so the latest outbreaks amount to 29%—nearly a third—of the total.
“While the risk for measles for the majority of the US population still remains low, it’s crucial that we take the necessary steps now to prevent the continued spread of measles and maintain elimination in the US,” Adria D. Mathis, MSPH, lead author of the CDC report, told Healthline. Mathis is affiliated with the CDC’s Division of Viral Diseases at the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD).
“We have seen, in the region, not only a 30-fold increase in measles cases, but also nearly 21,000 hospitalizations and five measles-related deaths. This is concerning,” Hans Henri P. Kluge, MD (above), WHO Regional Director for Europe, told BBC News. “Vaccination is the only way to protect children from this potentially dangerous disease.” Clinical laboratories in the US that identify a case of measles from a positive test must report that result to public health labs. Thus, wise lab managers will track the rise in measles cases and prepare for increased demand for measles testing. (Photo copyright: World Health Organization.)
Renewed Threat to the US, Other Countries
The recent cases “represent a renewed threat to the US elimination status,” and “underscore the need for additional efforts to increase measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination coverage, especially among close-knit and under-vaccinated communities,” Mathis told Healthline.
The MMWR report notes that most of the new cases were in persons under age 20, and that almost all were “in persons who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown.” Most of the importations, the report states, were “among persons traveling to and from countries in the Eastern Mediterranean and African WHO [World Health Organization] regions; these regions experienced the highest reported measles incidence among all WHO regions during 2021–2022.”
In the US, vaccination coverage has been below 95% for three consecutive years. That is the “estimated population-level immunity necessary to prevent sustained measles transmission,” according to the federal agency. In 12 states and the District of Columbia, the coverage rate is below 90%. In total, “approximately 250,000 kindergarten children [are] susceptible to measles each year,” the CDC report states.
Measles vaccination coverage has declined globally, “from 86% in 2019 to 83% in 2022.” This left nearly 22 million children under the age of one susceptible to the disease, the report notes.
Earlier Measles Outbreaks in the US
The CDC performed its latest analysis following two larger measles outbreaks in 2019 among under-vaccinated populations in New York state.
The Associated Press (AP) reported that the 2019 epidemic, which totaled 1,274 cases nationwide, “was the worst in almost three decades and threatened the United States’ status as a country that has eliminated measles by stopping the continual spread of the measles virus.”
A vaccine for the disease first became available in 1963. Prior to its availability, “there were some three million to four million cases per year,” AP reported. Most people recover, but “in the decade before the vaccine was available, 48,000 people were hospitalized per year. … About 1,000 people developed dangerous brain inflammation from measles each year, and 400 to 500 died,” AP noted, citing CDC data.
US Not Alone in Fight against Measles
Other countries also are reporting spikes in measles cases. In a recently published rapid risk assessment, the Canadian government reported a total of 29 cases as of March 15, 2024, of which 21 were reported since Feb. 28.
“That’s already the largest annual total since 2019 and more than double the number of cases reported last year, as medical experts fear the number will rise while more Canadians travel in and out of the country this month for March break,” CBC News reported.
“New projections from a team at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in British Columbia show the grim possibilities,” CBC News reported. “The modelling suggests that vaccine coverage of less than 85% can lead to dozens of cases within small communities—or even hundreds if immunization rates are lower.”
Numbers are far worse in parts of Europe. In a February 2024 news release, the World Health Organization reported that in 2023, more than 58,000 people in its European region were infected by the disease, “resulting in thousands of hospitalizations and 10 measles-related deaths.”
According to WHO epidemiological data, countries in Central Asia, which is part of WHO’s European region, reported some of the highest numbers:
15,111 in Kazakhstan,
13,735 in Azerbaijan, and
7,044 in Kyrgyzstan.
The Russian Federation reported 12,723 cases and Turkey reported 4,559.
A WHO European Region Measles and Rubella Monthly Update notes that more than half of the regionwide cases—31,428—were reported in the last three months of 2023. More than 15,000 cases were reported in December. That compares to just 163 cases reported in 2021 and 942 in 2022. Nearly half of the cases were among children under the age of five.
Lack of Vaccinations among Children Blamed for Outbreaks
One factor that has led to the increase in measles cases was the disruption to immunization services caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. “This has resulted in a significant accumulation of susceptible children who have missed their routine vaccinations against measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases,” the WHO reported.
Among the region’s 53 member states, 33 had eliminated measles, WHO reported, but “this achievement remains fragile. To retain this status, a country must ensure that transmission of the virus following any importation is stopped within 12 months from the first reported case.”
In the UK, which reported 231 cases last year, the National Health Service has launched a campaign to improve vaccination rates, the BBC reported, noting that “more than 3.4 million children aged under 16 are unprotected and at risk of becoming ill.”
However, a public health campaign built on vaccination is successful only if a high rate of individuals get vaccinated. The Baby Boomer and Gen X generations had high rates of vaccination for smallpox, polio, etc. because the parents saw individuals in their family and neighborhood who became infected and suffered lifechanging consequences. They recognized that vaccination was a simple thing to provide protection from a potentially deadly infection.
Clinical laboratory managers and pathologists will want to follow the CDC’s ongoing reports of the number of cases of measles in this country. Today, the absolute number of new measles cases is relatively small. At the same time, in communities experiencing an outbreak of even a few measles cases, physicians may want to increase the volume of measles tests they order for their patients.
