Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda have Higher Measles Vaccination Rates than US

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Outstanding.

Several countries with a GDP per capita of less than $1,000 — Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, among them — now have an infant measles vaccination rate that is higher than that of the U.S.1

Between 97 and 98 percent of American infants were vaccinated for measles in the early 1980s, according to the World Health Organization. But as of 2013, the rate was 91 percent.

U.S. measles vaccination rates have not entirely rebounded since they fell to 82 percent in 1987, the year after Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which recognized that many vaccines weren’t properly tested for side effects and which compensates people injured by immunizations. Since then, health officials say, vaccines have been tested thoroughly and are safer, but American parents haven’t fully responded to that messaging. Immunization rates in the U.S. haven’t topped 93 percent in any single year between 1990 and 2013, the year with the latest available data. ...

Fewer than 10 of 100,000 Burundians have contracted measles each year since 2003, after the country regularly topped 500 cases per 100,000 people in the 1980s. Other countries with big increases in immunization rates have seen similar magnitudes of decline in cases. Meanwhile, in the U.S. last year, there were 0.22 cases per 100,000 people, the highest level in 20 years — and more than twice 2014’s rate in Burundi (0.08 cases per 100,000 people).​

Other Countries Are So Much Better At Vaccinating Their Kids For Measles FiveThirtyEight

 

[auditor0007]

Outstanding.

Several countries with a GDP per capita of less than $1,000 — Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, among them — now have an infant measles vaccination rate that is higher than that of the U.S.1

Between 97 and 98 percent of American infants were vaccinated for measles in the early 1980s, according to the World Health Organization. But as of 2013, the rate was 91 percent.

U.S. measles vaccination rates have not entirely rebounded since they fell to 82 percent in 1987, the year after Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which recognized that many vaccines weren’t properly tested for side effects and which compensates people injured by immunizations. Since then, health officials say, vaccines have been tested thoroughly and are safer, but American parents haven’t fully responded to that messaging. Immunization rates in the U.S. haven’t topped 93 percent in any single year between 1990 and 2013, the year with the latest available data. ...

Fewer than 10 of 100,000 Burundians have contracted measles each year since 2003, after the country regularly topped 500 cases per 100,000 people in the 1980s. Other countries with big increases in immunization rates have seen similar magnitudes of decline in cases. Meanwhile, in the U.S. last year, there were 0.22 cases per 100,000 people, the highest level in 20 years — and more than twice 2014’s rate in Burundi (0.08 cases per 100,000 people).​

Other Countries Are So Much Better At Vaccinating Their Kids For Measles FiveThirtyEight

The damn government isn't going to tell me to vaccinate my kids. I'm positive they have some hidden agenda, most likely to turn us all into communists.

 

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UNICEF tryin' to vaccinate Sudanese children during cease-fire...

Thousands of Sudanese Children Unvaccinated Against Killer Diseases
October 06, 2015 — The United Nations Children’s Fund is urging Sudan’s warring parties to give the go-ahead for a life-saving measles vaccination campaign. Thousands of children in hard to reach areas currently are at risk for the disease.

UNICEF welcomes a recent cease-fire agreement between Sudan's government and rebels in three parts of the country. The agency says it hopes the cessation of hostilities will finally allow it and other aid organizations access to tens of thousands of children in the Nuba Mountains, parts of the Blue Nile States and Jabel Mara in northern Darfur. UNICEF spokesman Christof Boulierac said these areas have been off limits for four years. He said his agency is extremely worried about the condition of children there, as a full picture of their humanitarian needs is not known. “An estimated 165,000 children under the age of 5 have had no access to vaccination in the Nuba Mountains and in some localities in the Blue Nile States alone. Sudan’s children continue to be beleaguered by disease outbreaks, such as measles — as you know measles is killing lots of children when it is not prevented — dengue fever and diarrhea,” said Boulierac.

A Sudanese child is immunized against measles in North Darfur, Sudan.​

Sudan was hit with a measles outbreak in January. Since then, there have been outbreaks of this killer disease in all 18 states, with 14 states at epidemic level. UNICEF reports 3,168 cases were confirmed by August. This is more than four times the normal annual caseload in Sudan.

Boulierac said measles vaccination campaigns have been ongoing for the past few months throughout the country, except for the three inaccessible areas. If the cease-fire agreement holds, he said this would provide an opportunity to rectify this dangerous situation. He noted that children in Sudan continue to be victims of conflict and chronic underdevelopment. He said some 2 million children under age 5 are acutely malnourished every year.

Thousands of Sudanese Children Unvaccinated Against Killer Diseases

 

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Measles deadly in Europe...

WHO: Measles Has Killed 35 Children in Europe
July 11, 2017 - The World Health Organization says measles has killed 35 children in Europe in the last 12 months, calling it an "unacceptable tragedy" that deaths are being caused by a vaccine-preventable disease.

The figure is nearly a threefold increase since 2016, when measles killed 13 children. In 2015, it killed three.

In a statement Tuesday, the U.N. health agency said the most recent death was a 6-year-old boy in Italy, where there have been more than 3,300 cases and two deaths since last June. The highly contagious virus has also caused 31 deaths in Romania.

Fears about the vaccine's safety have caused thousands of parents to avoid vaccinating their children across Europe. In May, Italy made 12 vaccines mandatory for children, to combat what the government characterized as "misinformation."

WHO: Measles Has Killed 35 Children in Europe

 

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Measles rate dropping, striving to end cholera...

Experts Say Measles Victims Dropped Below 100,000 in 2016
October 26, 2017 - The World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the rate of deaths from measles has dropped 84 percent since the beginning of a global vaccination campaign in 2000.

Experts say the number of people who died from measles in 2016 was about 90,000, compared to more than 550,000 deaths in 2000. This marks the first time that worldwide measles deaths have fallen to less than 100,000 per year.

Robert Linkins, of the Measles and Rubella Initiative at the CDC, said in a statement that "saving an average of 1.3 million lives per year through measles vaccine is an incredible achievement and makes a world free of measles seem possible, even probable, in our lifetime."

Foriza Begum, background, a newly arrived Rohingya Muslim from Myanmar, reacts to her daughter Nosmin Fatima's scream as she receives a vaccination to prevent measles and rubella at a makeshift medical center in Teknaf, Bangladesh​

Since 2000, some 5.5 billion doses of measles vaccine have been administered to children through routing immunization services and mass vaccination campaigns. The disease is contagious through air particles and can spread quickly. Measles kills more people every year than any other vaccine-preventable disease.

But the WHO says the world is still far from reaching regional measles elimination goals. Since 2009, officials have managed to deliver a first dose of the vaccine to 85 percent of the babies who need it, but there has been no improvement in that rate in eight years. And only 64 percent of the affected population has gotten the second dose, which comes when a child is four or five years old.

The WHO says "far too many children" — about 20.8 million — have not had their first measles vaccine dose. Most of those children live in Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The disease puts children at risk of developing complications such as pneumonia, diarrhea, encephalitis and blindness. Measles vaccine is administered along with vaccines for mumps and rubella, in a shot known widely as MMR.

Experts Say Measles Victims Dropped Below 100,000 in 2016

See also:

WHO, Others Pledge to End Cholera
October 06, 2017 | WASHINGTON — The World Health Organization is sending 900,000 doses of cholera vaccine to Bangladesh to help prevent a major outbreak of cholera in the crowded Rohingya refugee camp that sits on the border of Bangladesh and Myanmar.

At least a half-million Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Myanmar, have crossed the border to escape a military crackdown in their villages. In Yemen, a massive and deadly cholera epidemic has affected almost 800,000 people, and the World Health Organization expects that number to climb to 1 million by year's end. Worldwide, about 100,000 people die from cholera each year.

End cholera by 2030

On Tuesday, the WHO, along with governments, aid agencies and donors announced a roadmap to end cholera by 2030. It’s the first global pledge to end this disease. Dr. Amesh Adalja said it’s not possible to eliminate cholera because cholera is a bacteria that exists naturally. Adalja is an infectious disease expert at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security. He is also a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Rohingya children walk to their tents after fetching drinking water at a makeshift camp near Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017. More than half a million Rohingya have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh in just over a month, the largest refugee crisis to hit Asia in decades.​

Adalja told VOA it is possible to make cholera as rare in Bangladesh and in Yemen as it is in the United States and the rest of North America. He said sanitation is the key to eliminating cholera. The disease is “not something that should happen in 2017,” Adalja said. “This is something that can be fixed by development and the civilizing effect of sanitation.” Cholera is a diarrheal disease. The bacteria that causes cholera lives in coastal waters and in brackish rivers. It thrives where there is poor water treatment, poor toilet sanitation and poor hygiene. It’s caused by eating or drinking contaminated food and water.

Malnutrition plays a role