Agenzia Fides

Stone Town (Agenzia Fides) – After five years, a new measles epidemic is spreading in the archipelago of Zanzibar. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, health workers are ready for a-two-day emergency campaign during which 10 000 children under five years of age will be vaccinated. Most of the 76 cases which were registered in the last two weeks, 62 of these children were treated while 14 others are still in hospital under close observation. The spread of this sudden epidemic is due in part to delays in the distribution of vaccines caused by the general high demand, but also by the parents' reluctance to bring their children to health centers. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 29/08/2011)