Winzige Särge: Masern töten Tausende Kinder im Kongo

There were 311,000+ reported Congo measles cases in 2023. 6,000 ended with a child in a small coffin days after a fever & a red rash. This year, cases have been fewer at ~97,000, but has become more lethal, killing 2,100+.

It’s not clear why.

It is on the rise in other parts of the world, too — including in some communities in the United States — though the measles vaccine has been in use since 1963 and is believed to have saved more lives than any other childhood immunization. Globally, there were 20% more measles cases in 2023 than in the year before, according to the World Health Organization, for a total of 10.3 million, and more than 107,000 people died. Fifty-seven countries had “large or disruptive” outbreaks, the W.H.O. said, nearly 60% more than in 2022.

There are more measles outbreaks in places like Minnesota & New Brunswick because parents mistrust vaccines or don’t believe kids will be seriously affected. Trump’s choice for federal health secretary, RFK Jr., has fought vaccine mandates & said parents should have rights to not vaccinate children.

Many parents in places such as Congo never have a chance to vaccinate children, however much they want to. Olive lived 28 miles from Bikoro, in a village called Ikoko Ipenge, where there is no health center. On Nov. 29, when breathing turned to shallow gasps, her grandmother gathered her up at dawn.

There were 10 children already admitted when Olive arrived; she was one of 18 more who came throughout the day. She needed oxygen and a blood transfusion, but the hospital had no blood bank, and so a donor had to be found. By 7 p.m., Olive was dead.

Measles cause “immune amnesia,” wiping out immunity to other infections built up, making them vulnerable to gastrointestinal & respiratory infections such as pneumonia. Diarrhea can quickly kill a child who is already frail from undernutrition; 4.5 million Congolese children are acutely malnourished.

Severe cases of measles can cause deafness, blindness & encephalitis. But those are seen less often in Congo, said Dr. Eric Mafuta, a professor, because a child such as Olive will succumb to what he called “the lethal cocktail” of pneumonia & diarrhea before other conditions have time to develop.

Congo is one of four big, populous countries that have never managed to rein in measles (the others are Ethiopia, Nigeria and Pakistan). Stopping the disease requires vaccination coverage above 95%, far higher than Congo has achieved. (In the U.S., coverage has slipped to 93%.)

Congo has had civil conflicts within its borders for decades. 7+ million Congolese are internally displaced — 740,000 had to flee their homes this year alone. The ongoing fighting can put children beyond the reach of the health system, although aid organizations do targeted immunizations in camps.

Abridged (shortened) article [https://bsky.app/profile/johnhatchard.bsky.social/post/3ldoq2t6otc2o](https://bsky.app/profile/johnhatchard.bsky.social/post/3ldoq2t6otc2o)