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Measles Initiative Campaign Launches in Guinea
Written by
Bonnie Gillespie
, Staff Writer, RedCross.org
Wednesday, November 12, 2003 — CONAKRY, Guinea – As part of sweeping efforts to eliminate measles from Africa, the Measles Initiative program was launched this week in Guinea. More than 3.5 million children in the West African nation will be vaccinated against the disease, which has largely been forgotten in countries like the United States but is still a childhood killer in many areas of the world. Partnering with the American Red Cross, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, UN Foundation and CDC, the Guinea Red Cross is working to vaccinate children even in the most remote areas of the poverty-stricken nation.
Measles is a deadly threat to children who are already malnourished and vulnerable to disease. |
Measles claims the lives of almost half a million children in Africa each year. The Red Cross and its partners seek to put an end to that grim statistic -- they believe the deadly disease can be eliminated by mass immunization campaigns like the one launched in Guinea. So far, that belief has been backed by success. Since the Measles Initiative began in 2001, 22 countries have implemented campaigns, with efforts in Guinea anticipated to bring total vaccinated children to more than 106 million, more than halfway to the Initiative’s goal of vaccinating 200 million children by 2005.
“The Measles Initiative campaign is like the kickoff a child health campaign in Guinea because it’s a partnership to improve overall health of children in the country,” said Dr. Mark Grabowsky, Senior Health Advisor for the American Red Cross and leader of the American Red Cross delegation participating in the Guinea campaign. “There are three hundred thousand births per year in Guinea. Of those, 4,000 will die of measles. One hundred percent of those children who die will not have been vaccinated.”
However, in poor nations like Guinea, simply having enough food for survival is much more of a priority than health care. Situated amid some of the world’s most politically volatile regions, the majority of Guinea’s 7.3 million citizens are impoverished and malnourished, with an annual per capita income equivalent to only $550. Most residents lack adequate nutrition, let alone medical care. Without enough food or access to clean water, they endure harsh living conditions that attribute to poor health, especially for the young and vulnerable.
Dr. Taibou Barry has been the director of the Hospital Donka in the capital city of Conakry for the past 15 years. |
“The families are poor and when they come to the hospital, they have to pay for everything, and that’s probably all the money they have,” said Dr. Taibou Barry, director of the Hospital Donka in the capital city of Conakry for the past 15 years. “So they must choose to eat or to come to the hospital.”
According to Dr. Barry, most choose not to seek medical care and instead attempt to treat diseases at home with ineffective primitive remedies, which is essentially the same is leaving the condition untreated.
“Malaria, measles, severe malnutrition, and all the complications that go along with those health concerns, like eye and lung problems – those are the problems people have here,” said Dr. Barry. “People come to the hospital when there is nothing left to do, they will try to medicate themselves and by the time they come to the hospital they have scars all over them from the things they were trying and more sick than before.”
Seventeen-year-old Diakite Mahawa brought her younger sister Mariam to Hospital Donka, after an untreated case of measles caused not only splotchy scarring on her skin but suspected brain damage as well.
Mariam Mahawa might have brain damage as a result of measles. |
“Our family is poor and we couldn’t get her treatment so she got worse,” said Mahawa, as her eleven-year-old sister sat expressionless on the hospital bed beside her. “My sister was so upset and so afraid and now we don’t know what is wrong with her.”
Mariam Mahawa and more than 30 million other children who contracted measles last year could have been spared the suffering that accompanies the disease with a simple vaccination that costs as little as $1 per child.
With each passing hour, 51 more children will have died in Africa as a result of measles. You can help save a life now by donating to the Measles Initiative.
Click here to make a secure online donation to support the Measles Initiative.
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