WHO Europe said that Member States in the WHO European Region “continue to struggle with the uninterrupted spread of measles, reporting more than 26,000 confirmed cases in the first seven months of 2011, representing a 276% increase from a comparable period in 2007. Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe, said, “We call on countries to respond to this Region-wide epidemic. The Region has set the goal of eliminating measles by 2015, but these outbreaks pose a serious threat to that goal. Measles is not the harmless infection that some people seem to believe it is, and where we can prevent illness and death, we must do so.” From January to July 2011, 40 of the 53 countries in the Region reported 26,025 measles cases, with the largest burden falling on western Europe. Nevertheless, WHO said that the actual number of cases is estimated to be higher, due to delays in reporting and to underreporting. Measles has led to 9 deaths in the Region this year, 7 of them in people over ten years old. The predominant genotype circulating in the European Region is D4, which has been endemic in some countries since 2008.

http://www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-publish/information-for-the-media/sections/latest-press-releases/measles-virus-continues-to-spread-in-the-european-region-who-calls-on-countries-to-step-up-response