Measles Outbreak In Zimbabwe

Brooke Edmonds

October, 6, 2010

3:45pm

Recently, in Harare, Zimbabwe, a serious disease outbreak has been claiming the life's of many children. This disease is formally known as the measles. Over the past two weeks the disease has taken the lives of seventy children. Most of the children coming from families that are apart of apostolic sects that shun vaccinations. Portia Manangazira, the director of health ministry disease control, states that they have been receiving many reports of deaths from the measles outbreak and the number of fatalities is continuing to rise. She also says that since some segments of society keep refusing immunizations they have large numbers of children living in the community being unvaccinated. The reason these apostolic sects shun the vaccinations is because it contradicts their belief in supernatural powers. Martin Dinha, governor of Mashonaland Central province, says that the government response to the outbreak has been slow and he is unhappy because the ministry of health was alerted and no intervention has yet been done to solve the problem.

Its sad that something as simple as an immunization, that could have saved the lives of many children, was not administered because of a certain groups set of beliefs. These children suffered and died because their parents did not want to take advantage of the immunization that could have saved them. The article also states that the measles is a highly contagious viral respiratory infection that causes high fever, skin rash, runny nose, watery eyes, and cough. The disease mostly affects children under the age of five. It is no wonder that the health ministry is not doing anything about the outbreak because if parents wont accept medicines or vaccines, they cannot do anything to help their children.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gxBMoOuIoCJfc8TDzzL527HcMapA