The Sarajevo Canton's Public Health Institute recorded 80 new cases of measles in the past seven days, raising the total number of cases to 677, for the period January 18-May 10.

The most cases were recorded in the Novi Grad Municipality – 277, followed by Novo Sarajevo – 123, while most of the patients in the Canton, 238, are children from two to five years of age, said the Public Health Institute

The Sarajevo Canton has been facing a sharp drop in the number of vaccinated children, declining the overall number of immunised residents below the minimum level for achieving collective immunity. The MMR vaccine has seen the sharpest drop, not due to lack of the vaccine itself, but because of the parents refusing to vaccinate their children.  

The Institute said that most of the patients with measles, 619, were never vaccinated, followed by 21 partially vaccinated, and six cases of fully vaccinated patients. The number of hospitalised patients in the said period was 117.

Measles is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by the measles virus. It is an airborne disease which spreads quickly through coughs and sneezes of infected people.

The disease affects about 20 million people a year. It is one of the leading vaccine-preventable disease causes of death.

The risk of death among those infected is about 0.2 percent, but may be up to 10 percent in people with malnutrition. Most of those who die from the infection are less than five years old.