"The DRC has difficulties on a number of levels. The country has such a high birth rate — 3.5 million children are born each year — that it needs to conduct mass vaccination campaigns every two years. Those campaigns, in which tens of thousands of health workers fan out across this vast country, are a logistical nightmare. First, the government has to get the vaccine from the capital, Kinshasa, to remote villages that can be reached only by helicopter — or through bloody conflict zones in the eastern part of the country. The vaccine must be kept between 2 °C and 8 °C from the time it leaves the warehouse until it is administered — a challenge in a tropical environment where power outages are frequent. Health workers must be trained to inject it safely, a much more difficult task than dropping liquid polio vaccine on a child’s tongue. The vaccine comes as a powder, which must be reconstituted with an accompanying solution of sterile diluent and then used within 6 hours. It also comes in ten-dose vials; worried about wastage, vaccinators are sometimes hesitant to open one when just a few children show up to a session, so the children go unimmunized."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%932020_measles_outbreak_in_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
2019–2020 measles outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
In 2019, a measles epidemic broke out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The epidemic started in early 2019 in the southeast corner of the DRC and then spread to all provinces. Close to a quarter of a million people have been infected this year alone. The World Health Organization (WHO) says this is the world's largest and fastest-moving epidemic. By June 2019 the epidemic was reported to have exceeded the death toll of the concurrent Ebola epidemic. By April 2020, it had infected mo
15 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by 2019–2020 measles outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo →
Related Quotes
"Close to a quarter of a million people have been infected this year alone. The World Health Organization (WHO) says t…"
"“We’re fighting the measles epidemic on two fronts - preventing infections and preventing deaths,” said UNICEF Repres…"
"“We’re facing this alarming situation because millions of Congolese children miss out on routine immunization and lac…"
"An outbreak of measles that began in early 2019 in the southeast corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)…"
"Many specific challenges in the DRC compound the already difficult task of vaccine delivery. Years of internal confli…"
"Even when cases of measles are detected in clinics, limited diagnostic and communication infrastructure can cause sig…"
"Since the start of 2019, the DRC’s measles epidemic has infected more than 341,000 people and killed some 6,400, taki…"
"Channelling attention and resources to the Ebola outbreak, donors and government officials were blindsided by the dev…"
"Last year, the DRC’s Ministry of Health led an effort to vaccinate 18 million children against the measles across the…"
"In countries with advanced healthcare, the measles vaccine works upwards of 85 percent of the time, according to Patr…"