Vaccination starts after measles epidemic kills 149

The medical relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Thursday it had launched an urgent vaccination campaign against a measles epidemic in Niger that has led to more than 20,000 cases of the disease and 149 deaths in recent weeks. MSF said in a statement it had begun vaccinating and treating children between the ages of six months and five years in Niamey, the capital of the landlocked Sahelien country, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health. The dense population in the city makes the risk of this extremely contagious disease spreading particularly high, MSF said in a press release. "Treatment is for everybody who is sick, because there could be cases of young adults who are infected and these would be treated," an MSF official told IRIN from Paris. "However, the priority is children between six months and five years," he added. Other regions affected by the epidemic include Tahoua, Tillaberi and Dosso, which like Niamey are situated in the southwest corner of Niger. MSF said about 70 percent of all the measles cases had come from these three areas. MSF has sent 150,000 doses of anti-measles vaccines and syringes to complement the available stock at the ministry of health. It has also sent 15,000 treatment kits, including 1,500 to treat the most serious cases at the main hospital in Niamey. It pointed out that several complications could arise from measles including deafness, mental retardation and the disease was potentially fatal. Severely affected children will be given nutritional supplements since measles is frequently linked to malnutrition, MSF said. The treatment kits contain paracetamol, oral antibiotics of vitamin A to fight any complications that may arise and eye ointments for children who may have already contracted conjunctivitis. They will be distributed to health centres. MSF said it had sent in a team of two doctors, a nurse and two logisticians to supervise the vaccination campaign in Niamey, where about 30 vaccination sites would be established. Next week, another team of MSF volunteers is due to go to Tahoua and later to Tillaberi. Measles is an acute illness caused by a virus that can be transmitted through the air, in respiratory droplets, or by direct contact with the nasal and throat secretions of infected individuals. After an incubation period that usually lasts for 10-12 days, symptoms of fever, malaise, cough, runny nose and conjunctivitis appear in non-immune persons exposed to the virus. Within two to four days, a rash of large blotchy red spots, appears behind the ears and on the face. At this stage, a high fever develops, the temperature possibly reaching 40.5°C. The rash spreads to the trunk and extremities and typically lasts for four to six days before fading away. About 30 percent of measles cases have one or more complications, including ear infections, pneumonia, diarrhoea, and blindness and post-infectious encephalitis.