Protecting Yemeni children against measles and rubella
WHO together with public health authorities and partners is implementing a vaccination campaign against outbreaks of measles and rubella. The campaign aims to protect 1.35 million infants and children up to age 10, in 74 high-risk districts of 10 governorates across Southern Yemen.
Neama Hareb is a health worker at Khormaksar polyclinic in Aden. Since 4 June, she has been walking from house to house immunizing infants and children against measles and rubella. Neama considers her work to be a race against the clock, as a fresh outbreak of the two vaccine-preventable diseases has taken 30 young lives to date in Southern Yemen.
Neama’s admits that the community immunization campaign is challenged by widely circulating false rumors that the vaccine is harmful to children.
“We are educating community members about the importance of taking the vaccine, and we are seeing an increase in the numbers of children being immunized,” said Ms. Hareb. “Encouraging mothers to get their children vaccinated can result in saving their lives, so this is very meaningful work.”
Measles ranks among the leading cause of death among young children despite availability of safe vaccines – killing over 568 people daily in 2019 alone, mostly children. About 30% of children affected with congenital rubella syndrome die. Both diseases are highly contagious, and can cause serious health problems including brain damage, blindness and deafness, in non-fatal cases.
“One person with measles can infect 12-18 people, making it the most infectious -- yet vaccine preventable disease,” said WHO-Yemen Representative Dr Adham Ismail Abdel Moneim. “Safe and effective vaccines to prevent measles and rubella have been available for over 50 years, and saved more than 31 million lives worldwide between 2000-2020."
"WHO is committed to helping Yemen detect, respond to, and lessen the harm of measles and rubella outbreaks,” Dr Abdel Moneim said. “The continued vital support of our partners has made this campaign possible - to prevent many more deaths from these two entirely preventable diseases.”
WHO is undertaking the measles-rubella outbreak vaccination campaign together with public health authorities, UNICEF, the World Bank International Development Association, the Government of Germany, and Measles-Rubella Initiative (MRI). Following closely on the heels of this campaign, WHO is launching the third round of an oral polio vaccine campaign that began in February and has so far immunized more than 2.2 million children up to age 5 against the vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV2).
Story: Nesma Khan, Kevin Cook / WHO Yemen
Photos: Nesma Khan / WHO Yemen