{"id":614606,"date":"2026-04-18T07:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T07:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/614606\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T07:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T07:35:13","slug":"its-a-powder-keg-romania-leads-eu-measles-cases-as-vaccination-rates-collapse-romania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/614606\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s a powder keg\u2019: Romania leads EU measles cases as vaccination rates collapse | Romania"},"content":{"rendered":"

By 10am on a spring day, the corridor of the clinic in the Transylvanian town of S\u0103cele was already crowded with parents and children. They were all waiting to see Dr Mirela Csabai, one of just seven general practitioners serving a population of more than 30,000.<\/p>\n

Most of the cases that morning were routine: colds, checkups, chronic conditions. The calm, however, is recent. In 2024, a measles epidemic tore through this community and left one unvaccinated toddler dead.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as vaccination rates remain low, it\u2019s a powder keg,\u201d says Csabai. \u201cOnce an epidemic starts, it is already too late to vaccinate. We need to act now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Romania is facing the worst measles crisis in the EU. The country has had four epidemics of the illness since 2005, each separated by only a few years of fragile calm.<\/p>\n

Dr Mirela Csabai: \u2018Once an epidemic starts, it is already too late to vaccinate.\u2019 Photograph: Guy Peterson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Between 2023 and 2025, it recorded more than 35,000 cases and at least 30 deaths, most of them infants too young to be vaccinated, infected by older, unvaccinated children. About 87% of all measles cases in the EU were reported in Romania in 2024; the next most affected country, Italy, recorded just over 1,000. Measles can cause serious complications, especially in children and infants, who can develop pneumonia and in some cases encephalitis.<\/p>\n

The crisis has a single, measurable root: a collapse in vaccination. The first dose for the MMR<\/a> vaccine is recommended at between 14 and 18 months, and while coverage rises to 81% by the later age (from just 47.4% at 14 months), it still falls well short of the 95% threshold needed for herd immunity.<\/p>\n

Uptake of the second dose at five is just over 60% nationally and as low as 20% in some communities, according to the National Institute of Public Health. Romania\u2019s MMR rate stood above the European average of 93% in 2010 but has been falling ever since, a decline that accelerated after the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely insufficient for measles,\u201d says Dr Aurora Stanescu, an epidemiologist at the institute. \u201cA firm political commitment to limit the number of deaths is necessary. This is a national security issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casandra Stoica: \u2018I got scared when the girls fell ill and now I want to vaccinate them all.\u2019 Photograph: Guy Peterson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Casandra Stoica, 25, entered Csabai\u2019s consultation room with three of her children. Two of her older daughters, now aged five and eight, contracted measles during the 2024 outbreak, when Bra\u0219ov county became the hardest hit in Romania, recording the highest number of cases and four child deaths.<\/p>\n

There was no space at the local hospital at the time so Stoica had to travel to a neighbouring county to find care. \u201cI got scared when the girls fell ill and now I want to vaccinate them all,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

But even when parents are convinced, access remains a barrier. Stoica is part of Romania\u2019s Roma community and lives with her husband and four children in two rooms with no access to running water or electricity. These precarious conditions make it difficult for her to attend appointments or keep up with vaccination schedules.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision not to vaccinate doesn\u2019t always come from the parents,\u201d says Gabriela Alexandrescu, a country director for Save the Children. The organisation sounded the alarm in early March, saying Romania was facing \u201cits worst vaccination crisis in decades\u201d.<\/p>\n

The causes, Alexandrescu says, are also structural: poverty, medical deserts and GPs without the time or resources to counsel hesitant families.<\/p>\n

Vaccination is not mandatory in Romania. In 2015, responsibility for administering vaccines was shifted exclusively to GPs, increasing bureaucracy and piling pressure on to an already stretched system.<\/p>\n

At the same time, school nurses \u2013 who had provided a crucial safety net for children who missed their scheduled jabs \u2013 were not allowed to administer vaccines any more.<\/p>\n

Dr Simona Codreanu: \u2018The majority of children get vaccinated at birth, but then they never return for the full schedule.\u2019 Photograph: Guy Peterson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

At the S\u0103cele clinic, Dr Simona Codreanu tends to more than 3,000 patients and sees more than 50 a day. \u201cThe majority of children get vaccinated at birth, but then they never return for the full schedule,\u201d she says, flipping through charts in which children over five have barely a couple of vaccines recorded. One of her patients died during the last epidemic after contracting measles from an unvaccinated sibling.<\/p>\n

Dr Mihai Negrea, an epidemiologist from T\u00e2rgu Mure\u0219, another county seriously hit in 2024, says structural bottlenecks and an over-reliance on GPs are slowing vaccination efforts.<\/p>\n

Under current rules, only general practitioners are reimbursed by the state for administering vaccines. Other doctors must complete additional certification and often pay out of pocket for supplies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main cause is not just anti-vaccine views but bad management of the system,\u201d he says. \u201cBy the time you manage to get your child vaccinated, it can take a month with all the paperwork \u2013 and parents can change their minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

When vaccination becomes difficult to access, delayed or bogged down in red tape, rates inevitably drop, he explains, even when parents want to protect their children.<\/p>\n

Negrea\u2019s prescription is practical: community vaccination centres and expanding the right to vaccinate to other doctors, rather than a system in which a single family doctor is expected to cover vaccination needs for thousands of families.<\/p>\n

Yet if the system is broken, it is also true that fear has found fertile ground within it. Across Romania, closed online groups have become spaces where anxieties are shared and amplified by mothers who are for or against the MMR vaccine.<\/p>\n

The Guardian spoke to half a dozen mothers who had decided to stop the vaccination schedule or not vaccinate their children at all against measles.<\/p>\n

Laura, 36, decided not to give her child the second MMR dose after the first jab, driven by fears about a link to autism \u2013 a claim that has been comprehensively debunked<\/a> and for which there is no scientific evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not anti-vaccines, but I have fears around the MMR vaccine and most of all I\u2019m put off by doctors not explaining things and not taking responsibility for side-effects,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Some parents find their way back. Nicoleta Dima did not immunise her child with the MMR vaccine until the age of six, held back by fears of allergic reactions that she now recognises were unfounded.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy fear was largely fuelled from the outside,\u201d she says. \u201cI realised just how manipulated we are, and that I had effectively trapped myself in an unfounded fear. I realised that every unvaccinated child contributes to these epidemics.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Bucharest, at the Matei Bal\u0219 National Institute, the country\u2019s leading infectious disease hospital, wards that were full during last year\u2019s outbreak are now quiet. During the 2024 epidemic, the most severe cases in the country came to this hospital. There were five deaths from measles complications in Bucharest during the epidemic.<\/p>\n

Dr Gabriel L\u0103z\u0103roiu-Nistor: \u2018There\u2019s a small minority who are firmly anti-vaccine but the rest are undecided.\u2019 Photograph: Guy Peterson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Dr Gabriel L\u0103z\u0103roiu-Nistor, an infectious disease doctor at the hospital, says the respite will not last. With vaccination rates so low, he expects another serious outbreak soon. \u201cWe must not forget our empathy and patience to explain to patients,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s a small minority who are firmly anti-vaccine, but the rest are undecided.\u201d<\/p>\n

That distinction \u2013 between the committed refusers and the uncertain, anxious middle \u2013 is the one that most animates the doctors working on the frontline.<\/p>\n

Back in S\u0103cele, Csabai saw Maria Olescu, 31, who vaccinated her first two children on schedule until the normal side-effects frightened her into stopping before the second dose. She has refused further vaccines since then, also partly because of influence from her religious community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t cut ties with parents who choose not to vaccinate their children, because that means we lose them for ever,\u201d says Csabai. She tries to earn their trust by treating their other health issues and hopes they will vaccinate in time before the next epidemic comes through.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is sad and regrettable that we still have children dying of measles,\u201d Csabai says. \u201cIt hurts to see children suffer from preventable diseases. I think it\u2019s our fault as doctors first: we have to earn their trust and we have to break the cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By 10am on a spring day, the corridor of the clinic in the Transylvanian town of S\u0103cele was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,137],"class_list":{"0":"post-614606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}