Pope Leo XIV is holding a mass in Santa Cruz de Succhabamba in northern Peru on Saturday as he continues his tour of South America, drawing huge crowds as people seek to catch a glimpse of the 71-year-old pontiff. After travelling by helicopter from Chiclayo air base to Santa Cruz de Succhabamba, Leo flies back for a prayer meeting with the Catholic community at the shrine of Saint Toribio de Mogrovejo in the evening. The Chicago-born pontiff, who previously worked as a missionary and then bishop in Peru and holds Peruvian citizenship, presided over an open-air mass for around 500,000 people in the city on Friday.
"What a joy it is to return to Chiclayo!" Leo said. "Thank you for your affection, support and prayers, especially for my health during this time of trial which, with God's help, I am overcoming."
The huge crowds turning out to see the pope have prompted heightened fears among health authorities in Latin America, which has seen a surge in measles cases this year. From January to the end of October, 57,666 confirmed cases were recorded in 17 countries and territories in the Americas, almost five times more than in the same period the previous year, with at least 81 deaths reported. Ahead of Leo's visit, the Pan American Health Organization considered the public health risk of measles "very high" in the context of the expected religious mass gatherings, with concern mainly linked to low vaccination rates in Argentina and Peru.
"We’re seeing children not going to school, children being hospitalized," Daniel Salas Peraza, the head of immunization at PAHO, said, describing it as a very complex situation. Measles is a highly contagious airborne disease caused by a virus that infects the respiratory tract and spreads throughout the body, causing symptoms such as a high fever, cough, runny nose and rash, and can potentially be fatal.
According to WHO data for 2025, only Uruguay had reached the threshold of 95% fully vaccinated coverage needed to stop the disease from spreading. In Peru, coverage stood at 90% for the first dose and 82% for the second, while in Argentina figures fell to 84% and 55% respectively. Peru has recorded almost 3,000 cases in 2026, the fourth highest number in the Americas after Guatemala, Mexico and the United States, with 170 infections detected so far this year across the five cities included in the Pope's itinerary of Lima, Chiclayo, Cajamarca, Cusco and Pucallpa.
In the run-up to the visit, Peruvian authorities stepped up vaccination campaigns by focusing on areas with higher transmission rates, bringing forward vaccination for children between six and eleven months of age, and targeting people up to 29 years old. By the end of September, 1.2 million doses had been administered since the push began in April, while more than two million additional doses were available. The situation is also tricky in Argentina, where authorities issued a warning about health risks linked to the Pope's visit as up to four million people were expected in Buenos Aires province, and experts worry about government cuts to health spending scaling back immunisation campaigns.
Uruguay has launched a period of enhanced epidemiological surveillance across the nation continuing until 29 November, alongside intensified appeals to the public to complete vaccination courses. The aim is to detect any new infections quickly and limit the spread of the virus after the large gatherings.
Source: Euronews. Read the original report ↗