WHO widens scope of measles vaccination to older children

The disruption to health services in Cote d'Ivoire caused by two years of civil war means that all children up to the age of 14 must now be vaccinated against measles, the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday. Drame Kandjoure, a doctor in the WHO team which is preparing a new measles vaccination campaign in the West African country of 16 million people, said measles vaccinations normally targetted the under fives. But he said vaccination programmes in both the government-held south and rebel-held north of Cote d'Ivoire had been disrupted since the civil war erupted in September 2002. Furthermore, the epidemiology service, which normally collects data about disease outbreaks in the country, was no longer working effectively, he added. "The measles age pool has broadened. The contamination age now ranges from zero to 14," Kandjoure told IRIN. The government has registered over 2,000 cases of measles since the beginning of this year and 10 deaths from the disease. However Kandjoure said this data was incomplete, above all because of a complete absence of information from the rebel-held north. He noted that between 1997 and 2003 Cote d'Ivoire recorded an average of 13,000 measles cases per year. The health authorities are also worried about polio making a comeback, given the suspension of vaccination campaigns in much of the country and the failure to bring polio under control in nearby Nigeria. So far 12 cases polio have been reported in Cote d'Ivoire this year, the latest two of which were both recorded in the rebel-held north. Earlier this month, the WHO appealed to international donors for US$16.5 million to carry our a further three rounds of polio and measles vaccinations throughout Cote d'Ivoire before the end of this year. UNICEF spokesman Jeff Brez said that since the civil war began less than 50 percent of children under five in Cote d'Ivoire had received routine vaccinations against these and other preventable diseases.