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Meeting Addresses Childhood Killer: Measles
Written by
Bonnie Gillespie
, Staff Writer and Photographer, RedCross.org
Wednesday, February 18, 2004 — Humanitarian and health professionals from across four continents gathered last week in Washington, D.C. for the Fourth Annual Meeting of Partners for Measles Advocacy. Building on the success of the ongoing Measles Initiative, an American Red Cross-led partnership to control measles deaths in Africa with vaccination campaigns, participants in the meeting developed strategies for future campaigns against the deadly disease. Among the attendees was Dr. Samuel Katz, inventor of the measles vaccine.
Measles Initiative efforts have resulted in a 29 percent reduction in measles mortality across the African continent, including saving the lives of these Guinean children. |
Each year, a disease barely remembered by most Americans kills nearly one million children, a half million of those in Africa alone. However, since its launch in 2001, Measles Initiative efforts have resulted in a 29 percent reduction in measles mortality across the African continent. With the help of international supporters, more than 42,500 Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers in 25 African nations have vaccinated 46 million children against measles, saving about 164,000 lives in just three years.
Teammates in measles advocacy, including Measles Initiative leaders from the American Red Cross, the United Nations Foundation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO), along with representation from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Ministries of Health, attended the unique, two-day partnership event.
“We will continue this important work that we’re doing,” Bradley Hersh of the WHO told the diverse crowd. “Measles deaths in Africa have already dropped by one-third, and the number of cases we’ve prevented can be surpassed. The progress we’ve made has even increased discussion of global measles eradication – one day bringing measles deaths worldwide to zero.”
According to progress reported by campaign strategists, Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers not only successfully implemented one of the most cost-effective and efficient public health interventions available to developing countries – they also seized the opportunity to provide additional health services whenever possible. Millions of African children also received a mega-dose of vitamin A and de-worming medication, while some mothers were given tetanus and polio vaccinations, as well as anti-malaria bed nets.
Dr. Samuel Katz, inventor of the measles vaccine, met Gregory Pendergast, 11, of Ithaca, NY, who traveled to Guinea last year with the Measles Initiative and his teacher Anita Bellucci at the event. |
Though the Measles Initiative campaigns have curbed the contagious disease in many nations, the fight for elimination continues but is complicated by inadequate health care systems, rampant poverty, poor living conditions and misconceptions regarding inoculations and other medical procedures.
Such obstacles have made Red Cross and Red Crescent social mobilization practices essential in measles vaccination campaign success. Weeks before campaigns begin, thousands of volunteers set out to visit every home in their nation, informing families about the invaluable benefit of life-saving measles vaccinations while allaying their fears about the inoculations themselves.
Grassroots level relationships built during those times are an integral aspect of facilitating increased health awareness especially in the most remote communities. At the annual meeting, Measles Advocacy Partners discussed ways of using Red Cross and Red Crescent social mobilization to promote health practices such as vaccinations part of the African family “routine.”
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