Coronavirus: Health Experts Fear Drop In Routine Vaccinations Could Lead To Outbreak Of Deadlier Diseases Like Measles

Even as all medical attention are on the rapid global spread of the novel coronavirus, health experts fear a drop in routine vaccinations could fuel other potentially deadlier outbreaks of diseases like measles. 

With movement restrictions and stay-at-home directive by various state government, many parents are having to postpone taking their children for routine immunisations, while big vaccine drives have been halted, leaving many vulnerable to a range of infectious diseases.

Seth Berkley, who heads the Gavi Vaccine Alliance, in an interview with AFP said measles is probably number one on his worry list at the moment.

He warned of the impact that an outbreak of measles or other diseases could have on health services already reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed some 40,000 people and infected 800,000 worldwide in a matter of months.

Berkley added that;

Routine immunisation is absolutely critical always, but is particularly critical at a time like this because if other outbreaks occur, they will overwhelm the health system.

He pointed out that during the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu region, that killed nearly 2,300 people, measles proved more deadly.

Berkley said;

Everybody was focused on Ebola, but 2.5 times the number of people died in the country from measles than died from Ebola.

Gavi Vaccine Alliance provides vaccines against a wide range of diseases for the 60 percent of the world’s children who live in developing countries.

While it may not be too big a deal to delay vaccines for some of those diseases for a few months, timely immunisation against the more contagious ones like measles is essential.

With various restriction measures set in place to reduce the spread of the fatal viral infection, Coronavirus, the world is facing a resurgence of another highly contagious and sometimes fatal viral infection, measles. 

Poorer countries are hit hardest with measles. The vast majority of the more than 140,000 global measles deaths recorded by the World Health Organization in 2018 were in sub-Saharan Africa.