Deadly Congo measles epidemic

This item appears on page 19 of the March 2020 issue.

A measles epidemic throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo had killed more than 6,000 people as of press time. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared an outbreak in the country in June 2019 and instituted an emergency vaccination program. Despite WHO’s best efforts, more than 300,000 new measles cases were identified in the country from Jan. 1, 2019, to the first week of 2020.