2-month anti-measles campaign starts tomorrow

KABUL on Friday announced launching a two-month long preventative measles vaccination campaign across the country from tomorrow (Saturday).

The campaign would target 13.8 million children aged nine months to ten years, said Public Health Minister Ferozuddin Feroz in a message.

He said the campaign was being launched in order to prevent further deaths of children from the disease.

He said children would be given the dose of vaccine at health centers, schools and mosques.

The minister said measles was a dangerous infection and families should vaccinate their children against it.

The campaign is being launched a month after four children died of measles in northeastern Badakhshan province.

Measles is a highly contagious respiratory infection that causes high fever and rash; it spreads easily in densely populated areas. It commonly affects children who have not been vaccinated.

Children who are malnourished are at greater risk of severe measles. Complications of measles include severe and prolonged diarrhoea, pneumonia, blindness, encephalitis and death. Measles can be prevented through immunization by vaccine.

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