大象传媒

Global measles deaths were already at a 23 year high in 2019 after several years of inadequate immunisation levels in a number of countries around the world. The coronavirus pandemic looks set to make matters worse.

The World Health Organization is worried that disruptions to measles vaccination programmes this year in Africa have substantially raised the risk of large outbreaks in many countries. Immunisation coverage needs to be maintained at 95% or more to keep measles suppressed.

Paediatrician Ifedayo Adetifa at the Kemri Wellcome research programme in Kenya has been modelling outbreak scenarios in Kenya.

(Image: Children outside a field clinic during a vaccination program against measles in Bangui in 2014. Photo credit: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images.)