Measles deaths plunge in Africa, WHO says

Measles deaths plunge in Africa, WHO says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Measles deaths plunged by 91 percentin Africa between 2000 and 2006, thanks to a concerted effortto vaccinate children, the United Nations said on Thursday.
Deaths from the once-common childhood disease fell fromnearly 400,000 a year to 36,000 in 2006, the U.N.'s WorldHealth Organization reported.
"The spectacular gains achieved in Africa helped generate astrong decline in global measles deaths, which fell 68 percentworldwide, from an estimated 757,000 to 242,000 during thisperiod," the U.N. and the American Red Cross said in a jointnews release.
"This is a major public health success and a tribute to thecommitment of countries in the African region," WHODirector-General Dr. Margaret Chan said in a statement.
"We need to sustain this success and intensify our effortsin other parts of the world, as there are still far too manylives lost to this disease."
Measles, caused by a highly infectious virus, is marked byfever and a characteristic rash. It is virtually unknown now inmany developed countries where vaccination is nearly universal.
WHO and other groups have led mass vaccination campaignsaround the world. The groups said 478 million children indeveloping countries were vaccinated between 2000 and 2006.
Officials said Africa has been hardest hit by theinfection, in part because poor nutrition makes children farmore likely to die of the disease.
"We looked at the part of the world that was heaviest hit-- that was Africa," WHO's Dr. Peter Strebel told reporters ina telephone briefing.
A STRATEGY THAT WORKS
"The clear message from this achievement is that thestrategy works," added Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of theU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "The next stepis to fully implement this strategy in South Asia, wheremeasles disease burden is now the highest in the world."
The team said that the number of reported cases in theSoutheast Asia region increased from 78,574 in 2000 to 94,562in 2006, primarily because doctors are doing a better job ofdiagnosing the virus in India and Indonesia.
"However, the number of reported cases in the EuropeanRegion increased from 37,421 in 2000 to 53,344 in 2006,primarily because of large measles outbreaks in Ukraine andRomania," the WHO team reported in the CDC's weekly report ondeath and disease.
India and Pakistan especially need to vaccinate morechildren, WHO said.
"Measles is still killing nearly 600 children under fiveevery day, an unacceptable reality when we have a safe,effective, and inexpensive vaccine to prevent the disease,"said Ann Veneman, executive director of UNICEF, the U.N.children's agency.
Strebel said it is too soon to try to eradicate measlescompletely, although it should be possible.
"Measles does have all the biological characteristics of adisease that could be targeted for global eradication," he toldreporters. "However at the moment there really is not thepolitical commitment globally to embark on another globaleradication effort."
A WHO-led vaccination campaign eradicated smallpox in 1979and the next target is polio.(Editing by Stuart Grudgings)