Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Johannesburg (Agenzia Fides) – Since 2009 southern Africa is tackling a serious epidemic of measles which has already taken 758 lives, mainly in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Namibia, Lesotho and South Africa. According to a statement issued by the World Health Organisation Support Coordinator for eastern and southern Africa, as many as 95% of children with a right to vaccination against measles, have not been vaccinated. A UNICEF statement said that in 2009 more than 2.4 million children in eastern and southern Africa, about 20% of all children under 12 months, were not immunised according to the normal procedure which consists of two doses of vaccine, the first within the first year of life, even though 15% of the children vaccinated fail to develop immunity from the first dose. Southern Africa is not the only region affected by a drop in the number of children vaccinated against measles.
In order to guarantee immunity, WHO recommends that at least 90% of all children in every district and at the national level, be vaccinated, according to the normal procedure. Global levels of vaccination dropped by 72% in 2000 but coverage rose again to 83% in 2008. According to WHO, because of measles, in 2008 a total number of 164,000 deaths were registered, about 450 a day or 18 every hour. The appearance of the epidemic in southern Africa in could be partly attributed to members of certain religious sects which do not believe in "modern western medicine " and refuse to have their children vaccinated. According to the media in Malawi members of the Seventh Day Adventists Church refuse to have their children vaccinated against measles. The last epidemic in certain countries of southern Africa was registered three years ago, whereas in other countries six years have passed since the last outbreak. The last wave in Namibia was in 2002, and in South Africa and Zimbabwe in 2005. (AP) (21/7/2010 Agenzia Fides)
