The risk for diseases like measles has risen amid
Ebola...
A man walks past an ebola campaign banner with the new slogan "Ebola
Must GO" in Monrovia, Liberia on Feb. 23, 2015.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is urging mass vaccination for preventable
diseases like measles and whooping cough in Ebola-affected countries.
The organization says the risk for additional outbreaks is high due
to interrupted immunization practices in the area. The agency is calling
for an “intensification” in routine vaccinations, and a measles vaccination
push in countries that no longer have Ebola cases.
In Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia resources and personnel shifted
away from usual immunizations to tackling the Ebola outbreak which has
infected more than 24,700 people and killed more than 10,190.
MORE: Why West Africa Might Soon Have 100,000 More Measles Cases
“Any disruption of immunization services, even for short periods, will
result in an increase in the number of susceptible individuals, and
will increase the likelihood of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks,”
the WHO said in a recent letter to officials in susceptible West African
countries.
The announcement comes after researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health published a study earlier in March in the journal
Science predicting that there could be an outbreak of up to 100,000
measles cases over the next 18 months in Ebola-affected areas if nothing
is done to amend disrupted vaccine programs.
“When there’s a disruption of medical services, measles is always one
of the first ones in the door,” study author Justin Lessler told TIME.
Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone are rolling out immunizations for
several preventable diseases in regions of the countries that are Ebola-free.
Liberia and Guinea have targeted children under the age of five for
measles vaccinations since they are at a high risk for infection.
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