[lxwang]

It surprised me too, and it's unclear what their basis is for saying this.

This WHO page [1] on measles statistics claims a 60% increase for the Americas. Maybe the BBC interpreted a <100% increase as a decrease, or maybe I'm misinterpreting it, since I don't see the raw numbers.

1: https://www.who.int/immunization/newsroom/measles-data-2019/...

[jfengel]

Conceivably "the Americas" could mean "the western hemisphere minus the US". It's an awkward way to put it, but it's an awkward concept.