KAALOKOL - Millions of children in drought-hit East Africa are threatened by a "lethal cocktail" of measles and malnutrition and urgently need vaccinations against the highly infectious disease, a UN official said.
"The high rates of malnutrition among these children means they're extremely vulnerable to diseases, especially measles," said Geoff Wiffin, East and Southern Africa Regional Emergency adviser for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), on Saturday.
"Vaccination campaigns have already begun but unless we vaccinate these 6 million children within the next few weeks significant numbers could die."
Hundreds of people and tens of thousands of livestock have died of hunger and thirst as drought has hit central and east Africa, especially Kenya, southern Somalia and southern Ethiopia.
During a trip to the Turkana region of northern Kenya, Wiffin said one in five children there was malnourished and now faced the threat of measles, which has surfaced in the region.
"In Turkana, for example, about half the children are vaccinated but in other places it's much lower. In some places it's as low as 10 percent," Wiffin told Reuters.
VACCINATION
"Measles and malnutrition are a lethal cocktail, measles can run rampant through a community if children are not protected. Our concern is with the measles epidemic we will see increased mortality."
UNICEF and the World Health Organisation said on Friday measles deaths worldwide had fallen 48 percent in six years as immunisation reached more children in sub-Saharan Africa.
A safe, cheap and effective vaccine has been available since the 1960s, but the disease is still a major killer of children in poor countries.
About 410,000 children under the age of five died from measles in 2004, many from complications related to severe diarrhoea and pneumonia, the UN agency said.
Wiffin said resources in drought-hit East Africa were limited. "With the funding we have got at the moment, we are not able to reach all children we need to reach," he said.
He said booster immunization campaigns had been launched in Somalia and Ethiopia, and one was planned for northern Kenya in the coming months.
Rosemary Ngaruro, head of Kenya's nutrition programme, said: "We have HIV, TB, Meningitis, we have measles, polio is resurfacing and now Avian flu. The country is over-stretched."
Story by Tim Cocks
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
