Canton Sarajevo's Public Health Institute recorded 593 new cases of measles from January 18 to May 3, most of which are children of the age of 5, Anadolu Agency reported.

Immunization coverage in the Sarajevo Canton is significantly lower than the necessary values for achieving collective immunity, the Institute said.

They explained that the MMR vaccine coverage, in particular, has dropped drastically in recent years, but not because of the shortage of vaccines, but because parents refuse to vaccinate children, although immunization against MMR is mandatory.

The biggest number of patients, 544 of them, were never vaccinated, 15 patients were not fully vaccinated, while five were completely vaccinated.

Measles is an acute, highly infectious, viral disease. This disease is still a significant cause of child deaths, especially in developing countries, even though there is a safe and effective vaccine against them.