Measles is a highly contagious viral infectious disease associated with severe complications and preventable deaths. Considered eliminated in Brazil until 2018, it re-emerged due to declining vaccination coverage. This study aims to describe the epidemiological profile of measles in Brazil between 2014 and 2024, relating it to vaccination coverage in the period. Ecological, quantitative study based on secondary data from the TABNET/DATASUS platform. Measles notifications from SINAN and data on clinical outcomes and deaths from SIH/SUS between 2014 and 2024 were analyzed. Variables included sex, age group, race/skin color, outcome and geographic region. Vaccination data were obtained from SINAN up to 2022; for 2023 and 2024, information was extracted from the Ministry of Health platform. A total of 40,729 measles cases were notified in Brazil between 2014 and 2024. The regions with the highest incidence were: Southeast, concentrating 51.46% of records (n = 20,961), with the state of São Paulo accounting for 90.46% of these cases, and North, with 37.95% (n = 15,457), especially Amazonas (56.94%). The largest peaks occurred in 2019 (n = 21,661), 2018 (n = 9,333) and 2020 (n = 7,931), totaling 95.57% of notifications in the period. Most cases occurred in individuals self-declared pardo (mixed race) (43.94%) and white (40.40%), with a slight male predominance (54.03%). The most affected age groups were 20–29 years (28.91%) and children under 1 year (18.16%). The lowest incidence was observed in individuals aged 60 years or more, totaling only 141 cases. The cure rate was 90.13%, with 44 deaths attributed to the disease (0.10%), more than half in children under 1 year (52.27%; n = 23). In Brazil, between 2014 and 2024, the administration of the measles vaccine fluctuated considerably. The highest number of doses was recorded in 2024 (101,992,640), and the lowest in 2021 (173,303). The Southeast led with 41,680,144 doses, and the North had the lowest total (12,505,445). There was a decline between 2018 and 2021. Measles remains an obstacle for public health in Brazil, with higher incidence in the Southeast region. There was a predominance of cases in men, adults aged 20 to 29 years and people of mixed race. The increase in cases from 2018–2021 may be related to the drop in vaccination coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic. These data reinforce the importance of epidemiological surveillance and effective prevention strategies, such as expanding vaccination coverage.
Lourenço et al. (Sun,) studied this question.
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