MSF launches mass measles vaccination campaign

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) launched a five-day measles vaccination drive on Thursday in the eastern city of Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, the international medical charity said. The effort will cover the health districts of eastern Goma, embracing about 56,000 children between nine months and 15 years old, MSF said. Over the past weeks, it said, it had also conducted a vaccination drive for 44,000 children in the southwestern town of Muanda, Bas Congo Province, and 15,000 in the health districts of Ubundu and Lubutu, in Orientale Province. Measles, MSF said, remained a major childhood killer throughout Africa, where about one million children die each year from the disease. It noted that in countries where measles still took a heavy toll in terms of childhood mortality; mass immunisation drives could be life-saving. It said the risk of outbreaks was especially real for an already weakened population, noting that the vaccination coverage in the DRC, in general, was quite limited because of the ongoing war and attendant disruption. Since the beginning of the year, MSF said, a measles epidemic had infected 825 people in Ubundu and Kabondo in Orientale Province, and 15 people had died in two months. In the northeastern town of Businga, Equateur Province, 72 cases of monkey pox had been recorded and seven people had died of this particular form of smallpox, which disfigures for life, MSF added. It said a study published in December 2001 showed the health situation in the country had been catastrophic for years, with alarming death rates, also among children under five years. It put the increased mortality in war affected zones mainly to the indirect effects of violence; such as an increase in infectious diseases and malnutrition, as the fighting led to loss of food, basic assets, medicines and services.