Say goodbye to layover woes and hello to unforgettable adventures with Turkish Airlines' Stopover Istanbul and Touristanbul programmes
A raging measles outbreak in Afghanistan infected tens of thousands and killed more than 150 people in the past year, the World Health Organisation said on Friday, warning of more deaths.
The UN health agency said the outbreak was particularly concerning since Afghanistan is facing massive food insecurity and malnutrition, leaving children far more vulnerable to the highly contagious disease.
“Measles cases have been increasing in all provinces since the end of July 2021,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva.
He said cases had surged recently, ballooning by 18 per cent in the week of January 24 and by 40 per cent in the last week of the month.
ALSO READ:
In all, 35,319 suspected measles cases and 156 deaths were reported between January 1, 2021 and January 29, 2022, the WHO said.
Some 3,000 of the cases were laboratory confirmed, Lindmeier said.
Ninety-one per cent of the cases and 97 per cent of the deaths were children under the age of five.
Lindmeier stressed that the measles-related deaths were likely underreported and the numbers were expected to swell.
“The rapid rise in cases in January suggests that the number of deaths due to measles is likely to increase sharply in the coming weeks,” he said.
Measles is a highly-contagious disease caused by a virus that attacks mainly children. The most serious complications include blindness, brain swelling, diarrhoea, and severe respiratory infections.
The latest surge in cases comes as Afghanistan is in the grip of a humanitarian disaster, worsened by the Taliban takeover in August — when Western countries froze international aid and access to assets held abroad.
The United Nations has warned that half the country is threatened with food shortages.
“Malnutrition weakens immunity, making people more vulnerable to illness and deaths diseases like measles, especially children,” Lindmeier said.
The best protection against measles is broad vaccination, with the WHO recommending that countries ensure at least 95-per cent vaccination coverage — a difficult goal in the Afghan context.
Lindmeier said the WHO and its partners had been working to scale up their measles surveillance capacities and provide support for things like lab testing and immunisation campaigns.
Last December, a vaccination campaign in the hardest-hit areas reached 1.5 million children, he said.
They have also been providing Vitamin A supplements, which are important to help reduce sickness and death from measles, reaching 8.5 million children in a nationwide campaign last November.
The WHO, Lindmeier said, was now working towards a larger measles vaccination drive starting in May, aimed at reaching more than three million children.
Say goodbye to layover woes and hello to unforgettable adventures with Turkish Airlines' Stopover Istanbul and Touristanbul programmes
It will be important to watch if the central bank nudges the South Asian currency higher as a slight downward bias is likely to persist in the market, says expert
K. Padmarajan, a 65-year-old tyre repair shop owner, began fighting elections in 1988 from Tamil Nadu state
Certificate need to be presented at check-in for inspection prior to flying from Abu Dhabi, says airline
'I do not remember the last time I broke my fast with my family,' says the officer manning Al Mizher intersection
The emerging technology stands poised to transform logistics — providing swifter, more efficient, and eco-conscious delivery options in the years to come
Among other variants of yellow metal, 22K opened at Dh246.25, 21K at Dh238.25 and 18K at Dh204.25 per gram
The incident happened before the boarding started; all affected passengers had to be rebooked on another flight