Measles partners launch website

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and other groups have launched a web site, http://www.measlesinitiative.org, as part of their fight against measles in Africa, the Federation said. The web site, launched on Wednesday, will host information on the disease and on all the organisations involved in the measles initiative, a five-year project launched in 2001 which aims to reduce measles-related deaths in Africa. The Measles Initiative is a long-term commitment to control measles deaths in Africa by vaccinating 200 million children, preventing 1.2 million deaths over five years, according to information posted on the new site. Under the project 21 million children in eight African countries have been vaccinated so far, resulting in 140,000 saved lives, the Federation reported Harold Decker of the American Red Cross as saying at the two-day meeting held in Washington, DC that was also attended by Samuel Katz, the scientist who invented the measles vaccine in 1963.