Africa risks an outbreak of preventable diseases if the rate of children vaccination continues to lag, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday warned.

African countries have experienced an increase in reported measles outbreak in the first quarter of 2022, compared with the first three months of 2021.

The WHO and the UN’s children’s agency UNICEF announced Wednesday in Geneva that measles cases surged by nearly 80 per cent worldwide this year, an early warning of danger that the illness indicates that outbreaks of other diseases are likely on the way.

Most of the outbreaks were in Africa and the eastern Mediterranean.

As a result of the alarming rise of measles cases, the WHO’s Africa regional bureau stated that outbreaks of other vaccine-preventable diseases have also become more common on the continent.

Some 24 African nations confirmed epidemics due to a variant of polio in 2021 — four more than during the previous year.

WHO’s regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti in an online briefing, said that “The rise in outbreaks of other vaccine-preventable diseases is a warning sign, as Africa works hard to defeat Covid-19, we must not forget other health threats.”

The measles virus attacks mainly children with the most serious complications including blindness, brain swelling, diarrhoea and severe respiratory infections.