By NewsDesk @bactiman63
The largest measles outbreak on the globe continues to increase in cases and deaths. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) measles outbreak saw at least 10,000 additional cases since our last report last Monday.
According to the latest WHO data, from 1 January to 27 October 2019, a cumulative total of 233,337
suspected measles cases with 4,723 deaths (CFR 2%) have been reported.
The report notes that 44 percent of the health zones in the country are in a epidemic phase.
In addition, what else that is troubling is cases continue to be reported from Ituri and North-Kivu provinces, concomitantly affected by the ongoing Ebola outbreak.
A vaccination campaign that started at the end of October in seven provinces resulted in 2,134,516 of the targeted 4,493,694 children (47 percent) actually getting vaccinated.
WHO says there are many challenges facing health workers in the country as they attempt to get the outbreak under control–some affected health zones in the Eastern part of the country remain inaccessible due to armed conflicts and insecurity and available funds to conduct vaccination campaigns in all affected health zones are insufficient.
