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Government of Democratic Republic of Congo has declared an
epidemic of measles, which the latest health ministry figures show has now
killed at least 1,500 people, more than a hundred more than have died of Ebola.
While health officials have focused on the hemorrhagic Ebola
virus in Congo’s east, about 87,000 suspected measles cases have been reported
across the country so far this year, more than the 65,000 recorded in the whole
of last year.
Congo’s health ministry announced the measles figure when it
declared the epidemic on Monday.
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on
Tuesday that 1,500 deaths from measles had been recorded in the first five
months of 2019, the highest since 2012, which was the deadliest measles
epidemic of the last decade.
Ebola has so far killed 1,390 people in Congo’s North Kivu
province, the latest Congo health ministry figures show.
MSF called for “a massive mobilisation of all relevant
national and international organisations in order to vaccinate more children
and treat patients” affected by measles.
The health ministry said its vaccination campaign would
target a further 1.4 million infants, and that 2.2 million had been vaccinated
in April.
Health officials say comprehensive vaccination programmes
are the only way to prevent measles spreading out of control, but say
ill-informed opposition can sometimes scupper such plans.
The United Nations children’s fund (UNICEF) launched a
campaign #VaccinesWork in April to counter a backlash against vaccination by
some parents in different parts of the world.
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