UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th July, 2019) A vaccination campaign to contain a severe measles outbreak in Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is underway amid an Ebola epidemic and renewed violence in the region, UNICEF said on Thursday.
"Health workers are urgently rolling out a complex measles vaccination campaign targeting 67,000 children in Ituri, northeast Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a region ravaged by armed conflict that is now also the hub of the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak on record," the children's fund said in a press release.
According to the release, at least 1,981 people have died due to measles across the DRC in 2019, and as of June 23, some 115,000 of suspected measles cases have been reported.
The campaign, led by the Ministry of Health and the UNICEF, will target four displacement camps in Bunia, Ituri, that have experienced a massive flow of people fleeing from violence that recently escalated in the region, the release said. UNICEF estimates that up to 400,000 people have been uprooted across Ituri due to the clashes.
Additionally, the Ebola outbreak is complicating the vaccination operation. The release explained that the early symptoms of Ebola are similar to those caused by measles, malaria and cholera and are usually indistinguishable.
The DRC announced the start of its most recent Ebola epidemic in the summer of 2018. As of July 8, some 1,641 individuals died from the disease.
The country has been suffering from instability since the mid-1990s, when the DRC became mired in conflicts. Even though the Second Congo War, or the Great War of Africa, ended in 2003, clashes continued in the eastern areas of the country, where various rebel groups continue to operate.
