MONROVIA, Montserrado – Although Liberia will be declared Ebola-free on Saturday, medical authorities have announced another disease outbreak – measles.
The outbreak has most impacted children under the age of five.
Due to the Ebola outbreak, immunizations for polio and measles were halted causing a large number of children to become infected.
Augustine Newray, the Supplemental Immunization Activities Officer at the Ministry of Health, confirmed in a news conference on Tuesday that there are currently 493 cases of measles in Liberia.
Newray said about seventeen percent of the population are also at risk of contracting the crippling polio disease in addition to measles.
The government has announced an immunization period for children beginning May 8th to the 14th to combat measles. Newray added that the Health Ministry would also use this time to vaccinate children against polio.
Newray explained that ten out of the fifteen counties in Liberia were reporting the outbreak. After performing lab tests, results indicated that babies from nine months to children age five account for 67% of the reported cases.
’’What is more troubling for us is that of all the 490 children infected thus far, 18 percent of them have taken the vaccine,’’ he added.
There are concerns that people are not immunizing their children due to speculations that they could contract the Ebola virus.
Photo: UNMEER/Aalok Kanani
