According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine is the best protection against the measles virus. The CDC reports that two doses of the MMR vaccine provides 97 percent protection against measles and one dose provides 93 percent protection.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday (local time) said that measles immunization had dropped significantly since the coronavirus pandemic began, resulting in a record high of nearly 40 million children missing a vaccine dose last year.

"There is now an imminent threat of measles spreading to different regions around the world as COVID-19 has led to a steady decline in vaccination coverage and weakened surveillance of the disease," said WHO and CDC in a joint report.

LEHTIKUVA

Parliament has passed an act concerning temporary financial assistance with electricity costs. The purpose of the assistance is to help low-income households pay their electricity bills at a time of sharply rising electricity prices.

An Act of Parliament on temporary assistance with electricity costs will come into force on 1 January 2023. The assistance is intended for households that are unable to take full advantage of the tax credit for electricity due to their low annual income.

Photo: The Finnish Parliament

Parliament has approved a bill on paying child benefit at double the normal rate for December 2022. For families who also receive social assistance, the extra child benefit does not count against their social assistance.

Temporary amendments will be made to the Child Benefit Act and the Act on Social Assistance. The goal of the amendments is to strengthen the purchasing power of families with children at a time of rising prices.

LEHTIKUVA / AFP

A top EU official has said that Brussels is concerned about recent layoffs at Twitter and gaps in the social network's content moderation practices.

"The recent layoffs @Twitter and today's results of the Code of Conduct against #Hate Speech are a source of concern. In my meeting at Twitter's HQ, I underlined that we expect Twitter to deliver on their voluntary commitments and comply with EU rules, including #GDPR & #DSA," EU Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders tweeted.

Photo: Andrey Popov, Mostphotos

A recent doctoral dissertation examined the background of imaging incidents that endangered patient safety. According to the dissertation, adverse events related to diagnosis could be prevented by means of, for example, more detailed follow-up examinations. Communication between the medical staff and the patient, on the other hand, ensures that the patient has a realistic understanding of their disease and the progress of the treatment.

Members of the Finnish Armed Forces taking part in a mechanised exercise in the Niinisalo Garrison in Kankaanpää, Satakunta, on 3 November 2022. Finland, Norway and Sweden on Tuesday announced they have signed a statement of intent on enhancing and improving trilateral defence co-operation in the changed security situation. (Jussi Partanen – Str / Lehtikuva)

FINLAND, Norway and Sweden are enhancing their trilateral defence co-operation as per a statement of intent signed in Oslo, Norway, on Tuesday by defence ministers Antti Kaikkonen of Finland, Bjørn Arild Gram of Norway and Pål Jonson of Sweden.

The statement of intent points to a change in the security situation that accentuates the importance of co-operation and unity among like-minded nations.

Entry Saaret, boardwalk

The entry Saaret by the Konsortium Gran team won the international quality and concept competition to develop the Makasiiniranta area in Helsinki's South Harbour. The jury found that the winning entry is creditable in terms of cityscape and architecture and that it is a balanced extension to Helsinki's maritime downtown area.

In May 2021, the City of Helsinki launched a competition to find a partner to develop the Makasiiniranta area in the South Harbour. The area will be developed as part of the pedestrian city centre and the seaside trail around the shores of Helsinki, and as a location for the new Architecture and Design Museum.

Bitcoin’s logo on a smartphone screen in Helsinki in October 2020. The recent instability in the cryptocurrency market, which has seen the collapse of one of the most reputable exchanges, seems to have spread to Finland, writes Helsingin Sanomat. (Jussi Nukari – Lehtikuva)

THE TURMOIL in the cryptocurrency market appears to have spread to Finnish companies, reports Helsingin Sanomat.

Coinmotion, the leading cryptocurrency investor in Finland, announced earlier this week it has disabled the cryptocurrency interest account service provided by Tesseract. Its customers can therefore no longer make new deposits to the service, but they can continue to request withdrawals from the service to Coinmotion.

S Bank’s logo outside a branch office in Espoo, Southern Finland, in May 2020. A vulnerability in the supermarket bank’s online banking system enabled a group of young people to make unauthorised bank transfers worth altogether 1.2 million euros from others’ accounts, according to Western Uusimaa Police Department. (Heikki Saukkomaa – Lehtikuva)

CRIMINAL INVESTIGATORS in the Finnish capital region are about to wrap up their inquiry into a case in which a group of young people made around 70 unauthorised bank transfers from accounts with S Bank.

The perpetrators gained access to the accounts by exploiting a vulnerability in the online banking system of what is the first so-called supermarket bank in Finland.

Twitter headquarters. Photo: David Odisho/Getty Images/AFP LEHTIKUVA / AFP

Twitter's account verification program is finally set to launch next week.

CEO Elon Musk, took to the microblogging site to make the announcement. "Sorry for the delay, we're tentatively launching Verified on Friday next week." he posted.
"Gold check for companies, grey check for government, blue for individuals (celebrity or not) and all verified accounts will be manually authenticated before check activates," the SpaceX owner added.

A client outside a TE Office in Pasila, Helsinki, in August 2021. Employment growth has continued in Finland, with the latest data showing that the trend of the employment rate rose to 74.4 per cent in October 2022. (Antti Aimo-Koivisto – Lehtikuva)

STATISTICS FINLAND on Tuesday reported that the trend of the employment rate climbed to 74.4 per cent in October.

The ranks of the employed, its latest labour force survey shows, grew by roughly 66,000 year-on-year to over 2.6 million – a significant increase, Pertti Taskinen, a senior actuary at Statistics Finland, described to STT.

Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn adjusted a microphone during a public hearing at the Parliament’s Commerce Committee in Helsinki on Tuesday, 22 November 2022. Rehn said the exacerbation of the energy crisis has increased the risk of recession in the eurozone but played down fears of a major collapse in Finland. (Jussi Nukari – Lehtikuva)

THE EUROZONE is at risk of sliding into a recession the severity of which will be determined largely by the energy crisis and solutions adopted to alleviate it, estimates Olli Rehn, the governor of the Bank of Finland.

Rehn on Tuesday reminded in the Parliament House that consumer prices in the eurozone have risen particularly steeply, with energy prices accounting directly for almost half of the overall inflation.

In January, it will once again be possible to sense the international travel atmosphere and experiences, receive concrete offers and tips and interview experts from more than 60 countries face- to-face. After years of waiting, the fair is expected to be extremely busy. The Travel Fair will take place on 20-22 January 2023 (Matka Trade Day on 19 January).

Northern Europe's largest travel event, Matka Nordic Travel Fair, will be arranged after a three-year pause. After the pandemic, travelling has once again commenced rapidly and the travel fair is expected to raise the travel fever of the public to an unprecedentedly high level.

Photo: HUS Helsinki University Hospital.

The EU has awarded 7 MEUR to HUS Helsinki University Hospital led Consortium, which aims to unlock the full potential of real-world data collected in European cancer hospitals. This in turn will support the implementation of safer, more efficient, and personalized novel cancer therapies.

“To implement value-based cancer care, real-world data on the cost-effectiveness of treatments is needed in real-time”, states the project lead, senior medical director in oncology, Johanna Mattson.

LEHTIKUVA

According to a study, individuals who have already been infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, still benefit from a vaccination as well, with 60% to 94% protection against reinfection, depending on the variation.

A new study led by Katrine Finderup Nielsen at Statens Serum Institut, Denmark, reports these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine.