Another outbreak: Measles cases could double in Ebola-stricken countries

Measles cases could almost double in countries hardest hit by the West African Ebola outbreak as overwhelmed health systems are unable to maintain child immunizations, scientists said on Thursday. For every month that health care systems are disrupted, up to 20,000 children between 9 months and 5 years old are put at risk, researchers said. More than 10,000 people have now died from the Ebola virus, almost all of them in West Africa, the World Health Organization said Thursday. The three hardest-hit countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia have recorded 24,350 cases and 10,004 deaths since the epidemic began more than a year ago. There have also been six deaths in Mali, one in the United States and eight in Nigeria, all of which have since been declared Ebola-free.

[The fight against Ebola] is going in the right direction.

World Health Organization

Measles epidemics often follow humanitarian crises because “measles is so incredibly contagious,” explained Johns Hopkins University epidemiologist Justin Lessler, who led the study published in the journal Science. The new study warns that it’s crucial to restart the shots quickly, citing math models that estimate thousands could die if a large enough measles outbreak were to strike before the battered health care system has a chance to recover. While Lessler’s team only looked at measles risk, he said the Ebola epidemic had also disrupted the delivery of vaccines against polio and tuberculosis and of a combined shot that protects against meningitis, pneumonia, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatitis B and diphtheria.

The secondary effects of Ebola — both in childhood infections and other health outcomes — are potentially as devastating in terms of loss of life as the disease itself.

Justin Lessler, assistant professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

World Ebola