4.2 million Sudanese children vaccinated against measles

More than 4.2 million children aged between six months and 15 years old have been vaccinated against measles in Blue Nile, North Kordofan, South Kordofan, West Kordofan, White Nile and Sennar states during a campaign that lasted until the end of May.

The Federal Ministry of Health undertook the campaign with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef, and confirmed that South Sudanese refugee children in the targeted states have also been covered by the immunisation drive. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported the results this week.

The campaign started on 7 May in West Kordofan State and was extended to Blue Nile, North Kordofan, South Kordofan, West Kordofan, White Nile, and Sennar from 22 to 30 May. Except for North Kordofan, the campaign coverage was between 99-101 percent of the target.

While the number of measles cases and measles-related deaths are lower this year compared to the same period of 2015, the Ministry of Health reports that the most of the measles cases are in the states which did not implement the measles vaccination campaign last year, especially the Kordofan region, accounting for about 75 percent of the confirmed cases.

Between 1 January – 13 May 2015, there were 2,500 confirmed measles cases and 38 measles-related deaths compared to 1,073 confirmed cases and 10 deaths reported during the same period of 2016, the Ministry reported.