20100619
africanews

The measles outbreak which hit most parts of Malawi has already claimed 70 lives in four months, health officials have confirmed. The situation has forced government to carry out a mass measles vaccination campaign for all children between the ages of 6 months and 15 years throughout the country.

Initially the national wide vaccine campaign was supposed to start this July targeting six million children.

Principal Secretary in the ministry of health Chris Kang’ombe disclosed that the number of reported cases had reached over 12000 nationwide.

“There are over 12,000 cases reported so far with 70 deaths “Kang’ombe said.

A statement from the Lilongwe district office indicated that the district has recorded 10 deaths and 2572 cases as of June 6, 2010 from the month of February.

But in an interview in Lilongwe district medical officer Dr Taya Banda said the district had of Thursday recoded 10 more confirmed cases.

Another district which has been hit most by the outbreak, Balaka southern part of Malawi has already recoded 11 deaths with 1, 162 confirmed cases reported.

However health experts say the increase in number of deaths is as a result of resistance from apostolic faith who refuse medical attention.

Measles outbreak which has hit Malawi has also been reported in countries like Zimbabwe, Tanzania and other southern African countries.