Since the first measles cases were reported in the urban health district of Antananarivo Renivohitra (in the heart of the capital city, Antanarivo), health officials have seen 3,239 laboratory confirmed or epidemiologically linked cases.
No deaths have been reported to date.
More than eight out of 10 cases have been reported in Antananarivo-Renivohitra while a smaller number of cases have been reported in Ambatondratrimo and Antananarivo-Atsimondrano. 23 total health districts have been affected.
WHO/UNICEF estimates put the average measles vaccination coverage at 58% in 2016 and 2017, which accounts for 80 percent of cases reported are in children 14 years of age and younger.
Madagascar had not registered any measles outbreaks in the last 13 years (since 2005) and was already on the path to measles elimination.
The country has not yet introduced the second dose of measles-rubella vaccines into the national immunization program.
The current measles outbreak has occurred at a time when there is some resurgence of plague in the country, straining the public health response system.
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