Measles

An epidemic of measles is currently raging in the Miandgja, Ngomashi, and Lwibo districts in the Masisi region of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. There are hundreds of thousands of children living in these areas who have not been immunized against measles.  Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has therefore launched a large-scale emergency vaccination campaign and has also treated 130 children who have contracted measles.

MSF is providing treatment to those infected, and has launched a vaccination campaign for approximately 400,000 children between six months and 15 years of age.

Since April, an outbreak of measles has been sweeping through the town of Guri El and nearby areas in the Galgaduud region of South and Central Somalia. So far, MSF has treated 403 patients for measles-related complications in the area.

As intense violence once again rocks Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, teams from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) continue working throughout the country to provide lifesaving medical care.

Following an outbreak in eastern Chad, MSF is currently vaccinating children between six months and 15 years against measles. As a nurse, Lenny Krommenhoek was part of this vaccination team for five weeks. Following her recent return, she wrote about the enormous logistical challenges she faced during her mission and her very personal experience in this remote part of the world.

On February 18, 2009, MSF started a massive measles vaccination campaign in the district of Adré in Eastern Chad, along the Sudan border. MSF teams have up to today vaccinated 19,000 children against measles.

MSF has mobilized significant human and logistical resources to fight an ongoing measles epidemic in the district of Abéché, Chad.

Both the displaced and the residents in North Kivu lack the most basic living standards, such as good hygiene conditions, clean water, food, and healthcare. As a result, there are disease outbreaks.

Since January, thousands of children have developed measles in Niger. MSF has sent medical teams to Maradi and Zinder, the regions with the highest numbers of measles cases, to prevent the spread of this highly contagious disease.

Atlanta, November 15, 2006 — In research presented at the 55th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), the international emergency medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and its research affiliate, Epicentre, showed how rapid, mass vaccinations can reduce the toll inflicted by measles epidemics in Africa. In light of these and other findings, MSF feels there is enough evidence for the WHO to revise its current policy recommendations, which doubts the effectiveness of mass immunization once an epidemic has started, stating that such campaigns would be undertaken too late to have any meaningful impact.

Kinshasa/Brussels, March 13, 2006 - The international humanitarian aid organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is launching a massive measles vaccination campaign in Mbuji Mayi (Kasai Oriental province), the second largest city in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In only a few weeks, MSF teams will vaccinate an estimated 550,000 children under the age of 5.

On August 24, MSF sent its first team consisting of one medical doctor, one nurse, and two logisticians, to West Sumba in order to investigate reports of a measles outbreak that had killed five people in the sub-district of Kodi. They soon found that the outbreak had already spread into 6 of West Sumba's 15 sub-districts.

After having vaccinated more than 40,000 children in the Bousso district, 186 miles south of N'Djamena, MSF medical teams have now joined their colleagues in the capital of Chad.

April 28, 2005, N’Djamena/New York - A measles epidemic has hit at least three provinces in Southern and Eastern Chad, as well as the capital, N’Djamena. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has started to provide emergency assistance by treating patients with measles, continuing assessments, and carrying out vaccination campaigns.

Over the past 18 months, MSF has vaccinated more than 500,000 children in a continuing campaign against measles in some of the most inaccessible areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). MSF nurse Jessica Nestrell is coordinating the vaccination campaign.

New York, April 28, 2004 - Because of the lack of appropriate, urgently needed aid, the health of displaced people in Sudan's Darfur region - particularly children - is radically worsening, according to the international medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Mary Jo Frawley, an American RN and veteran of six MSF field missions, joined an MSF team this winter for a measles vaccination campaign in the remote mountain villages of Tajikistan.