Thursday, November 21, 2019

Death = absence of herd immunity

DR Congo measles: Nearly 5,000 dead in major outbreak
The World Health Organization (WHO) says this is the world's largest and fastest-moving epidemic. Close to a quarter of a million people have been infected this year alone.

Measles in DR Congo has now killed more than twice the number who have died of Ebola there in the last 15 months. The Congolese government and the WHO launched an emergency vaccination programme in September that aimed to inoculate more than 800,000 children.

But poor infrastructure, attacks on health centres and a lack of access to routine healthcare have all hindered efforts to stop the spread of the disease. The majority of those infected with measles in the country are infants. Four million children have been vaccinated, but experts warn that this amounts to less than half of the total in the country - and not enough vaccines are available.

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