PHA-Exchange> WORLD ON TARGET TO HALVE MEASLES DEATHS BY YEAR'S END

[Claudio]

From: "Vern Weitzel" <vern.weitzel at undp.org>


WORLD ON TARGET TO HALVE MEASLES DEATHS BY YEAR’S END, UN AGENCIES REPORT
New York, Mar  3 2005 11:00AM
Deaths from measles, which only a decade ago killed millions of children
each year, have plummeted
by nearly 40 per cent since 1999 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns, with
countries on target to
halve mortality by year’s end and Africa leading the world in the decrease,
United Nations agencies
<"http://www.unicef.org/media/media_25308.html">announced today.

Global measles deaths dropped 39 per cent to an estimated 530,000 in 2003,
from 873,000 in 1999,
with the largest reduction occurring in Africa, the region with the highest
burden of the disease,
where estimated measles deaths decreased by 46 per cent.

Beyond  its death toll measles sickened 30 million more children, leaving
many with life-long disabilities like blindness and brain damage.

 As measles wards
shut down all over the African continent, a long-term budget item in many
hospitals can be freed up
to save children from other diseases.

 Each year more than 130 million children are born and “we must reach each
and every one with measles vaccination.”