A mother has her child vaccinated at an MSF clinic.
Photo by Nico Heijenberg / MSF
Just under 200,000 children affected by measles die every year, worldwide. Even though a safe and effective vaccine exists, outbreaks occur all round the world because routine immunisation programmes are not in place or are not effective.
Measles is caused by the measles virus and is highly contagious. Infection occurs by coming into contact with fluids released when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
Early symptoms include a runny nose, cough, eye infection, followed by diarrhoea, dehydration and pneumonia. If untreated, measles can kill and children infected often become chronically malnourished as well due to the energy they spend fighting the disease.
Vaccination is the best form of protection against measles and, even after the disease has begun to spread, it can still reduce the number of cases and deaths. The difficulty is that at least 95% of the people need to be immune to prevent new outbreaks.
MSF teams initiate immunisation campaigns when an outbreak is confirmed and usually target all children between 6 months and 15 years old. Children under five are particularly targeted because they are most likely to die from the disease. The key to the success of a vaccination campaign is convincing parents of the importance of vaccinating their children so awareness strategies are very important.
In the field, MSF doctors are constantly frustrated by the lack of adequate medical tools. In response, Médecins Sans Frontières set up the MSF Access Campaign in 1999 to improve access to existing medical tools and to stimulate the development of urgently needed better tools. Campaign for Acces to essential medecins.
MSF is well known for its humanitarian medical work, but it has also produced important research based on its field experience with vulnerable populations. This website archives MSF's scientific articles and makes them available free, with full text, and in an easily searchable format. MSF Field Research website.
For 30 years, MSF has directly witnessed the human cost of the lack of drugs for neglected diseases and has raised its voice against this inequity. In 2003, seven organisations from around the world joined forces to establish DNDi, Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative.