NEW YORK, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) — The UN office in South Africa is supporting the government’s mass vaccination efforts to stem a lingering measles outbreak, spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday. main speech of United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
It is Resident Coordinator Nelson Muffuh who is leading the UN efforts in the face of this epidemic which is affecting five of the country’s nine provinces, he said, adding: “Our team on the ground is working with the authorities on mass vaccinations “.
While the World Health Organization has deployed experts, public awareness campaigns in unaffected provinces will also be launched in the coming weeks. Mr. Dujarric also specified that a truck from the United Nations Children’s Fund will continue to circulate in the affected provinces, thus helping to increase vaccinations.
“Our colleagues tell us that the next two weeks will be particularly critical, with schools reopening, kicking off a new school year,” the spokesperson said.
South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said it found 397 measles patients last week. “The number of cases continues to increase daily as blood and throat swabs are submitted to the NICD.”
While the age range of lab-confirmed cases ranged from 2 months to 60 years, the majority of cases, 40%, were in the 5-9 year age range, followed by 29% in the age range. 1 to 4 years old and 17% in the 10 to 14 year old age group, the NICD said. End