HARARE The UN childrens agency says it requires more than US$17 million in assistance this year to respond killer disease outbreaks in Zimbabwe amid fears that at least five million children are at risk from the current measles outbreak. (Pictured: Children playing UNICEF
UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) said its combined programmes for Zimbabwe were 90 percent underfunded, having received a meagre US$10.4 million out of the US$108.7 million asked for this year. The agency however said it urgently US$17 million or about 17 percent of the unmet requirement to respond to current challenges posed by measles, cholera and typhoid in the southern African country.
UNICEF requires US$17 million to respond to the most acute emergencies including ongoing measles, cholera and typhoid outbreaks, the UN agency announced last week as it partnered the Zimbabwean government in rolling out a measles vaccination campaign. It warned that some five million children or more than 40 percent of Zimbabwes population were in danger of contracting measles, a highly contagious virus spread by contact with an infected person through
coughing and sneezing.
It has been estimated that 90 percent of people in contact with somebody affected by measles will become infected if they are not already immune. Measles weakens the immune system and can result in secondary problems such as pneumonia, blindness, diarrhoea and encephalitis. Supported by Hellen Keller International, World Health Organisation
(WHO) and UNICEF, the Zimbabwe government launched a nationwide measles vaccination campaign last Monday to fight a rising measles outbreak and arrest plummeting immunisation coverage.
The campaign follows a rise in the incidence of measles since last September that has so far claimed nearly 400 lives from over 7 000 recorded cases. During the 10-day vaccination campaign which runs from May 24 to June 2, the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare and its partners, plan to immunise 95 percent of children between the ages of 6 months and 14
years. More than US$8 million has been spent on vaccines and logistics to ensure the campaign reaches remote populations. Immunisation points have been set up at all hospitals, clinics, community centres, churches and schools.
The measles outbreak came barely a year after a cholera epidemic claimed close to 5 000 lives as bankrupt local authorities failed to supply clean drinking water to residents or provide garbage collection services.
The cholera epidemic was only brought under control after international aid agencies moved in with water treatment chemicals as well as medicines and health support staff to treat the disease. UNICEF said it desperately needed additional funding to avert another cholera outbreak in the last quarter of 2010 which would pose a serious threat to Zimbabwes already stretched health system. Typhoid is another water-borne disease that has erupted due to the
lack of access to clean water and related poor sanitation and hygiene practices.
An outbreak of the disease was reported in Harare in early February, with over 400 suspected cases and eight suspected deaths recorded by the City Health Department.
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