The global authorities released a report on Thursday announcing that the deaths caused by measles have decreased all around the world and reached the number of about 200,000 a year. The health authorities believe that this decrease will go on with very much success.

According to a report from the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other organizations, the annual measles deaths have dropped for 74% from 2000 to 2007. The health officials are very glad about the new statistics because the deaths have dropped thanks to the vaccination campaigns.

11 million deaths were avoided in this decrease. It’s a fact that measles used to be the main cause of death in children all around the world and it still kills nearly 500 of them in a day. But countries like Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan, were the first in this big drop. Their death rates decreased about 90%.

The report appears this week in CDC and WHO’s publications and it was released on Thursday by the Measles Initiative, which a global partnership. Their officials announced last year a drop of 60% between the years 1999 and 2005. Yet, the measles cases in the United States are very few and the deaths even fewer.

This year’s cases in the U.S. happened because the parents rejected the vaccination.

Measles can give symptoms such as four day fever, cough, runny nose and red eyes. The fever can sometimes go above 40 degrees and the main characteristic of the disease is the generalized rash that begins a few days after the fever. This rash can sometimes change its color from red to dark brown and usually starts on the head and then spreads all over the body.