"In 2010, the WHO’s key Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) declared that measles can and should be eradicated, but it stopped short of recommending a target date. Since then, advocates have been lobbying the WHO to launch a global measles-eradication campaign and set a date for completion, as it did for smallpox and polio. At a meeting last October, however, SAGE recommended a different tack: instead of setting eradication deadlines that would be difficult to meet, the group advised waiting until success is actually in sight — say, 5 years away — before pushing full-bore to wipe out the disease. Doing so would require boosting rates of routine immunization with two doses of measles vaccine to a level never achieved before. The DRC is one of about 20 countries that have yet to add the second dose to its regime. And even that wouldn’t be enough. Eradication would also depend on improving the quality of mass campaigns and bringing in an easier-to-use vaccine. Those goals are very far away, measles experts say."