Measles epidemic reported in Equateur Province

Up to 300 cases of measles have been reported in Basankusu, 210 km northeast of Mbandaka, the main town in the Democratic Republic of Congo province of Equateur, the deputy director of epidemiological services at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Mondonge Makuma, said on Friday. However, doctors in Basankusu told the UN Mission in the DRC that some 800 people were infected, three of whom had died. "We accept that the figures 200 to 300 cases are estimates because the epidemic may be worse," Mondonge said in Kinshasa, the nation's capital. National health workers have been on strike for one week now, and it is difficult to determine the exact figures for the sick. The cause of this epidemic is also unknown but doctors at Basankusu suspect it has been caused by the poor refrigeration of vaccines. However, the UN World Health Organization, the epidemiological services at the Ministry of Health and vaccination experts say the cause could lie elsewhere. "It is not necessarily because of bad vaccines, because Medicins Sans Frontieres has maintained vaccine refrigerators very well in this area," Mondonge said. "The greater likelihood for the disease is that vaccination coverage against measles has been poor in many of these health zones." He said that the epidemic had resurfaced in all areas where fewer than 80 percent of residents had been vaccinated. Fewer than 80 percent of Basankusu's 100,000 residents were vaccinated against measles, Dr Leon Kinuani, an adviser on vaccinations at the WHO, said.