News | Covid-19 pandemic disrupts the fight against measles

By La Provence (with AFP)

WHO and U.S. health officials warned today:Measles cases declined worldwide in 2020, but efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic have halted vaccination and prevention campaigns. “In November, more than 94 million people were at risk of not being vaccinated as planned due to the disruption of measles campaigns in 26 countries.”, note the World Health Organization and the US Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

207,500 measles deaths in 2019

“Many of these countries are currently experiencing disease outbreaks. Of the countries that postponed their planned 2020 campaigns, only eight (Brazil, Ethiopia, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia) resumed the campaign after an initial delay “, annotate this document again. “Before there was a coronavirus crisis, the world was in the throes of a measles crisis, which hasn’t gone away”, said Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of Unicef. In fact, measles killed 207,500 people worldwide last year, a figure up 50% from 2016.