Background: As a highly contagious systemic viral infection, measles has a significant fatality rate, mostly from subsequent infections. This study assesses patient-specific demographic and environmental profiles while calculating mortality rates over a five-year follow-up period.
Methods: This is a retrospective, descriptive study analyzing epidemiological data on measles from January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2023. T The duration of data collection continued for the period from 2024/October/17th to 2025/February/28th. The data of the whole Iraq was collected from Iraqi Ministry of Health\Department of Public Health\Communicable Disease Control Center, from the section of epidemiological surveillance.
Results: This study included 3,873 laboratory-confirmed measles cases out of over 20,000 suspected cases. Their mean age was 6.4 ± 8.4 years (ranging from 2 days to 79 years). The most affected age group was 1–4 years old (42. 5%). Males affected 52.34% of the cases, while females accounted for 47.66%. 77.35% of the patients were unvaccinated, 10.02% were vaccinated, and
12.63% had unknown vaccination status. The incidence rate in 2023 reached 32.3 per 100,000 populations, the highest during the study period. The highest number of cases was reported in
Baghdad–Karkh (15. 32%).
Conclusion: Measles incidence peaked in 2023, while the lowest rates were observed in 2021. Geographically, Baghdad reported the highest prevalence, whereas Sulaymaniyah recorded the
lowest. Regarding diagnostic methods, more than 50% of cases were diagnosed clinically, while Epilink-based diagnosis was the least frequent. Ultimately, misinformation and vaccine hesitancy
remain significant obstacles to measles eradication. This suggests a major outbreak in 2023, possibly due to declining vaccination rates or inadequate public health responses. |
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