Published Date: 2010-07-12 14:08:09
Subject: PRO/EAFR> Measles - Africa (25)
Archive Number: 20100712.209113

MEASLES - AFRICA (25)
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Date: Sat 10 Jul 2010
Source: Voice of America (VOA) News.com [edited]
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/Measles-Outbreak-in-Africa-Threatens-Gains-98162044.html?refresh=1


Measles Outbreak in Africa Threatens Gains
------------------------------------------
The Measles Initiative, a consortium of global health care
organizations, warns a serious outbreak of measles in Sub-Saharan
Africa is threatening all the gains made since 2000 in reducing
deaths from this killer disease among children under 5. The United
Nations reports nearly 90 000 cases of measles have occurred in
sub-Saharan Africa since June 2009, including about 1400 deaths. The
epidemic is most severe in the southern African countries of
Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Namibia, Lesotho and South Africa.

The Measles Initiative was created in 2001 to tackle the growing
problem of the disease in Africa. The group says gaps in the
implementation of measles control strategies resulting from a lack of
funds has led to the dramatic increase in measles cases.

Andrea Gay is executive director of Children's Health at the UN
Foundation, one of the partners of the Measles Initiative. She tells
VOA in a phone interview from Washington the enormous progress Africa
has made in cutting child deaths from measles is now at risk. She
says a major factor is the dramatic decline in funding. She notes
GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, had been
donating USD 150 million to the Measles Initiative, but this dropped
to a little over USD 20 million in 2008.

"The Measles Initiative was unable to provide the same level of
resources to the country," said Gay. "We were asking countries to
increase their share and many countries were not able to increase
their share to the extent that was necessary to carry out a high
quality campaign. One thing that can happen is that the campaigns are
not as good and that means there are going to be more pockets of
children who are not vaccinated and because measles is infectious, it
will find those children and there will be an outbreak."

Measles is easily spread through coughing and sneezing. It can cause
severe complications, including pneumonia and diarrhea and lead to
death. While money is a key factor, Gay says measles is easily
preventable. To ensure protection, she says at least 90 percent of
all children in a country need to be vaccinated through routine immunization.

"We are trying to get countries to improve their routine, their 1st
dose of vaccine to reach more children, but, quite honestly even to
do that, usually, it is a question of resources," she said. However,
Gay says money should not be a deterrent. She says it costs less than
USD 1 to vaccinate a child against this killer disease. She says USD
59 million is needed this year to prevent a resurgence of measles
deaths globally.

[Byline: Lisa Schlein]

--
Communicated by:
HealthMap Alerts via ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

[Due to the current funding constraints towards the measles
initiative, most of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are unable to
reach at least 90 percent of the infants targeted during the routine
and mass campaign immunization programs. The result is accumulation
of unvaccinated cohorts and hence the risk of even bigger outbreaks
in the near future. It is therefore critical that additional
resources are mobilized by the governments and partners to alleviate
the current funding gaps.

A map showing the affected countries in East and Southern Africa can
be seen at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa#Territories_and_regions. - Mod.JFW]

See Also

Measles - Africa (24): Malawi 20100626.208850
Measles - Africa (23) 20100619.208705
Measles - Africa (22): Malawi, RFI 20100608.208543
Measles - Africa (21): Swaziland 20100608.208541
Measles - Africa (20): Zimbabwe 20100526.207614
Measles - Africa (19) 20100524.207547
Measles - Africa (18): Malawi 20100511.207265
Measles - Africa (17): Zimbabwe 20100508.207208
Measles - Africa (16): Zimbabwe 20100501.207073
Measles - Africa (15): Mauritania 20100428.207022
Measles - Africa (14): Malawi 20100422.206898
Measles - Africa (13): South Africa 20100421.206879
Measles - Africa (12): Zimbabwe 20100416.206801
Measles - Zambia: (Lusaka) 20100414.206758

Additional background information on measles is available from the
general ProMED-mail list. The postings below can be found at
http://www.promedmail.org. - Mod.JFW

Measles - Australia ex South Africa 20100709.2299
Measles - France 20100701.2191
Measles - Russia (03): (AM,BU) 20100629.2169
Measles - Africa (19): Zambia 20100629.2162
Measles - Taiwan: imported & local 20100625.2114
Measles - Africa (18): West, Southern 20100623.2095
Measles - Africa (17): Malawi 20100620.2073
Measles - Africa (16) 20100619.2063
Measles - Australia (03): (WA) nosocomial, alert 20100607.1897
Measles - Philippines (05) 20100523.1708
Measles, nosocomial - Slovenia (02), ex Ireland 20100521.169
...................jfw/ejp/be

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