Dakar - Democratic Republic of Congo's
government has declared an epidemic of measles, which the latest
health ministry figures show has now killed at least 1 500
people, more than a hundred more than have died of Ebola.
While health officials have focused on the hemorrhagic Ebola
virus in Congo's east, about 87,000 suspected measles cases have
been reported across the country so far this year, more than the
65,000 recorded in the whole of last year.
Congo's health ministry announced the measles figure when it
declared the epidemic on Monday.
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on
Tuesday that 1,500 deaths from measles had been recorded in the
first five months of 2019, the highest since 2012, which was the
deadliest measles epidemic of the last decade.
Ebola has so far killed 1,390 people in Congo's North Kivu
province, the latest Congo health ministry figures show.
MSF called for "a massive mobilisation of all relevant
national and international organisations in order to vaccinate
more children and treat patients" affected by measles.
The health ministry said its vaccination campaign would
target a further 1.4 million infants, and that 2.2 million had
been vaccinated in April.
Health officials say comprehensive vaccination programmes
are the only way to prevent measles spreading out of control,
but say ill-informed opposition can sometimes scupper such
plans.
The United Nations children's fund (UNICEF) launched a
campaign #VaccinesWork in April to counter a backlash against
vaccination by some parents in different parts of the world.