Doctor David Bardens, pictured above, took biologist Stefan Lanka to court and won

A German biologist who offered 100,000 euros to anyone who could provide scientific evidence that the measles virus existed, has been ordered to pay up by a court.

Skeptic Stefan Lanka made the undertaking in an advert that he posted online several years ago.

Doctor David Bardens attempted to claim the prize after providing the biologist with a comprehensive study that had been published in a medical journal.

Lanka was hauled before a German Court when he failed to uphold his side of the bargain and pay up, reported The Local.

A Judge in the regional court in Ravensburg, South Germany, ruled in the favour of Dr Bardens and found that he had met the criteria of the advert.

Lanka claims that the illness is not a virus and is psychosomatic, according to the BBC.

He has reportedly said that he will now appeal the decision, according to The Local.

Germany is currently in the middle of a debate about whether vaccinations should be made compulsory after a recent outbreak of the virus.

Measles is a highly infectious viral illness that can be very unpleasant and can sometimes lead to serious complications.

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It is now very uncommon in the UK due to the effectiveness of the MMR vaccination, according to the NHS.

In the US public health officials are struggling to persuade more parents vaccinate their children.

In some states, the number of parents seeking exemptions from school attendance vaccination requirements has been inching up.

The rise has come despite unsettling outbreaks of some vaccine-preventable diseases that had nearly disappeared from the United States.

'I think we're all kind of frustrated,' said Stephen Morse, a Columbia University infectious disease expert.

In West Africa scientists are warning that hard-to-treat areas that have already been hit by Ebola are now at risk of a measles outbreak.

Ebola derailed child immunisations in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, leaving hundreds of thousands more children vulnerable to the more routine infections, researchers said.

Measles epidemics often follow humanitarian crises because 'measles is so incredibly contagious,' explained Johns Hopkins University epidemiologist Justin Lessler, who led the study published in the journal Science.

'Measles is not the only health threat that has been made worse by the Ebola crisis, and may not even be the most dire, but it is one we can do something about,' he added.