AFP
NOS News•
In Zimbabwe, nearly 700 children have died of measles infection since April. That is more than four times as many as two weeks ago, when the Zimbabwean Ministry of Health announced that 157 children had died from the disease.
More than 6,000 Zimbabweans have been infected with the virus since this spring. The government has passed an emergency law to fight the virus. A vaccination campaign has also been launched, targeting children between the ages of 6 months and 15 years.
Among the dead are many children who had not been vaccinated against the virus, the Zimbabwean authorities report. This is related to the way in which strictly religious groups in the country view vaccinations. They do not believe in its effect and they use alternative medicine.
Medics are critical of this and are calling on the government to require parents through legislation to vaccinate their children against highly contagious and deadly viruses such as measles.
Covid
Due to the corona pandemic, vaccination campaigns against other viruses have been interrupted in countries vulnerable to outbreaks. For example, in 2020 at least 23 million children worldwide missed basic vaccinations, the highest number since 2009. The UN currently estimates that some 73 million children are at risk of being infected with the measles virus because of missed vaccinations.
Unicef, the UN children’s rights organization, therefore warned in April of new measles outbreaks. Measles outbreaks have also occurred in Somalia, Yemen, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Ethiopia in the past year, mainly caused by low vaccination coverage.