Preventable deaths are on the rise in the European Union amid low vaccine uptake, putting young children most at risk, Europe’s disease agency has warned.

Officials from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) revealed new data Monday confirming an upward trend in measles and pertussis — or whooping cough — cases last year.

At least five people in EU countries died of measles between March 2023 and the end of February 2024, all in Romania, while data showed a more than 10-fold increase in whooping cough cases in the EU in 2023 and 2024 compared to the previous two years.

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“It is disheartening to see that despite decades of a well-documented safety and effectiveness track record of vaccines, countries in the EU/EEA and globally still face outbreaks of several vaccine-preventable diseases,” said Andrea Ammon, ECDC director.