By Robert Herriman  @bactiman63

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that the measles epidemic in Madagascar continues to show a decreasing trend since February when supplementary immunization activities (SIA) were performed.

Virus Image by mmmCCC from Pixabay

In the eight month period of September 2018 to May 2019, 145,136 cases have been registered. Children under 14 years were the most affected.

Of this total, more than 19,000 cases had complications and 909 people died.

The last and third phase of the measles vaccination campaign took place in early April when an additional nearly 4 million children aged 6 months to less than 10 years in 67 districts were targeted.

This last phase follows the two campaigns carried out in January and February 2019, which made it possible to target 3.2 million children aged 6 months to 9 years in 47 health districts in the country.

T-shirts, coffee mugs and other merchandise with a clean, computerized image of the three schistosomes. See more unique items with this design at  Blood flukes in Black and White 

The WHO Representative in Madagascar, Dr Charlotte Ndiaye, said: “The effective protection of the population against measles cannot be maintained without the revitalization of routine immunization. It is important to draw the attention of the population to the need to vaccinate their children, but efforts must be strengthened to ensure that all parents of 9- to 11-month-olds continue to vaccinate their children outside the countryside.”