MSF provides care to measles patients and asks for the announced mass vaccination campaign to be launched as soon as possible.
Burkina Faso is currently stricken by the most serious outbreak of measles in the last few decades. According to the Ministry of Health, 45,000 people, including nearly 300 who have died, have been recorded with measles since the start of the year. Most of them were children under five. While the peak of the epidemic seems to have passed, 2,600 new patients are being registered every week in the country.
Since March, MSF has provided free treatments and care to people with measles in five state-run health care facilities in the country’s capital, Ouagadougou. In three districts in the East of the country, since the beginning of May, MSF teams have been offering free care for measles patients in three health centres and supporting Ministry of Health facilities – with the donation of treatments and referral of complicated cases to MSF medical centres.
“We are still treating around 850 new patients every week in the MSF-supported centres,” says François Giddey, the MSF head of mission in Burkina Faso. “Our fear is that many sick people don’t go to medical structures because they expect to have to pay for care. The toll of this measles epidemic, already terrible, may actually be much higher.”
It is estimated that about 10 per cent of measles patients die if they are not treated. Every year in the world, measles kills some 200,000 people, mainly young children in low-income countries. Yet measles is a known disease and simple treatment and an effective vaccine exist.
“With a vaccination three two months earlier, many deaths would have been avoided.” – François Giddey, MSF Head of mission
Alerted by the rising number of measles cases, MSF mobilised an emergency team in early March and was ready to carry out a vaccination campaign jointly with the Ministry of Health throughout the five districts of Ouagadougou. In this region, which is the most affected by the epidemic, the target population is estimated to be around 1.4 million people. MSF’s proposal was not accepted, and five months after the first measles cases appeared, vaccination has still not started in any district.
Giddey says: “Following discussions between the authorities, the World Health Organisation and donors, a mass vaccination campaign against measles has been announced for June. No matter who does the vaccinating we just hope that the campaign will be started as soon as possible. With a vaccination three two months earlier, many deaths would have been avoided.”
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MSF has been working in Burkina Faso since 1995. The organisation currently runs programmes addressing malnutrition and HIV/AIDS. In 2007, MSF launched a programme to decentralise nutritional treatment in Yako and Titao districts, in the north. In Ouagadougou, MSF’s HIV/AIDS programme has provided care for about 5,000 patients, among whom 4,000 are following an antiretroviral therapy. Medical and psychological programmes for street girls, which were started in 2005, have just been handed over to a local organisation.