By Reuters, Standard Digital
Democratic Republic of Congo’s government has declared an epidemic of measles, which the latest health ministry figures show has now killed at least 1,500 people, a hundred more than have died of Ebola.
While health officials have focused on the hemorrhagic Ebola virus in Congo’s east, about 87,000 suspected measles cases have been reported across the country so far this year, more than the 65,000 recorded in the whole of last year.
Congo’s health ministry announced the measles figure when it declared the epidemic on Monday.
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Tuesday that 1,500 deaths from measles had been recorded in the first five months of 2019, the highest since 2012, which was the deadliest measles epidemic of the last decade. Read more…
