Today the international humanitarian aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) launches a massive measles vaccination campaign in Mbuji Mayi, the second largest city in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Over the next few weeks, MSF teams will vaccinate an estimated 550,000 children under the age of 5.
The operation will not be easy, as David Goetghebuer MSF's Head of Mission in DRC explains:
"We're talking about vaccinating a target population bigger than the total under-five population in countries like Sweden (415,000) or Switzerland (365,000) but with an extremely poor infrastructure. In Mbuji Mayi, transport by car is very difficult and most of the vaccination sites will have to be reached on motorbikes"
In January, a measles outbreak was identified in Mbuji Mayi, where an estimated 2,5 million people live. Since the beginning of the year, more than 1,000 new cases have been reported. After receiving information from the first exploratory missions as well as authorisation from the Congolese authorities, MSF started composing a team of 10 international workers and 500 Congolese staff to set up and run the vaccination campaign. The town is divided in 10 health zones, in which 102 sites for vaccination have been identified. MSF is working in close cooperation with the Congolese Ministry of Health. The aim is to get at least 85% of the children in affected areas vaccinated.
"Our strategy is to move simultaneously towards two objectives: to launch the vaccination campaign and to guarantee free and complete treatment for all the children already infected. These two steps are essential to control the mortality rate and to reduce the spread of the outbreak", says Goetghebuer.
Worldwide, measles kills an estimated 450,000 people per year (an average of 1,200 per day) and the majority of them are children. Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known and almost all non-immune children contract the infection if exposed to the virus.