Measles has killed more than 5,000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo since January – more than double the toll in the country's Ebola epidemic – the World Health Organization said Wednesday, November 27.
"The DRC (measles) outbreak is the largest outbreak worldwide. It is one of the largest that we have seen," Kate O'Brien, director of the WHO's immunization department, told reporters in Geneva.
As of November 17, the country had registered 250,270 measles cases, including 5,110 deaths, the WHO said.
DRC declared its latest measles epidemic in June, and in September the country launched an emergency vaccination campaign to counter the outbreak.
WHO said that campaign was still ongoing, but was expected to be completed by the end of the year.
O'Brien said the epidemic was still "all over the country", pointing out that most of those affected were "children and babies".
By: AFP.
Image: The New York Times.
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