The disease has claimed the lives of over 6,000 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
More than 310,000 measles cases have been identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since the beginning of 2019, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). More than 6 thousand cases have died. WHO estimates that an additional $ 40 million is needed for vaccinations, prevention and treatment.
A measles outbreak reported last year in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was declared an epidemic in June 2019 after all 26 provinces in the country reported multiple cases of this acute infectious disease with high levels of infectiousness. For the whole of 2019, according to estimates by the World Health Organization, more than 310 thousand cases of the disease and cases of suspected measles have been identified in the DRC.
More than 6,000 Congolese infected with measles have died. WHO called this epidemic the most serious in the world.
To date, the efforts of WHO, the DRC Ministry of Health, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization have managed to vaccinate 18 million children under the age of five. However, in some parts of the country, the level of immunization remains very low.
In a statement on the epidemic, WHO said it was able to raise $ 27.6 million for vaccination, prevention and treatment of measles patients in the DRC. However, an additional $ 40 million is urgently needed to expand vaccinations in the 6-14 age group and provide adequate care. “We are doing everything we can to curb this epidemic. But to be fully successful, we must ensure that no child is at risk of dying from a disease that can be easily prevented by simple vaccination,”said WHO Regional Director Matshidiso Moeti in a statement.
Meanwhile, the DRC is also raging with the Ebola epidemic, which the WHO has named the second most fatal in the world. Since August 2018, almost 3,400 cases have been identified and 2,235 have died.
Alena Miklashevskaya
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