Africa is facing an outbreak of preventable diseases due to delays in vaccinating children, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on April 28, with measles cases rising by 400%.
Twenty African countries reported measles cases in the first quarter of this year, eight more than in the first three months of 2021. The African region recorded nearly 17,500 cases of the highly contagious virus between January and March. The WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said Wednesday in Geneva that measles cases had risen by almost 80% worldwide this year, warning that an outbreak of “canary in coal” indicates that other diseases were possible. Most cases were in Africa and the eastern Mediterranean. The WHO Regional Office for Africa said cases of other vaccine-preventable diseases had also become more common on the continent. About 24 African nations have confirmed epidemics of a polio variant in 2021 – four more than last year. Thirteen countries had yellow fever epidemics last year, up from nine in 2020 and three in 2019.
“Inequalities in access to vaccines, disruptions from the Covid-19 pandemic, including the enormous pressure on the health system, weakened routine vaccination services in many African countries and forced the suspension of vaccination programs,” the WHO said. “The rise in outbreaks of other vaccine-preventable diseases is a warning sign,” WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti told the internet. “As Africa works hard to defeat Covid-19, we must not forget other health threats,” he added. The measles virus mainly affects children with the most serious complications, such as blindness, edema of the brain, diarrhea and severe respiratory infections. flight,
