CAIRO: A total of 2.15 million children across Egypt were vaccinated Saturday against measles as part of a national campaign targeting 24 million children, the Ministry of Health said in a Sunday statement.
The campaign kicked off on Saturday, and expected to last until Nov.21. It was launched to protect children with ages between nine months and 10 years old from measles and Rubella (also known as German measles.)
Anti-measles vaccination national campaign kicks off Oct. 31, in health unit in Imbaba, Giza- Deena Romia/YOUM7
Anti-measles vaccination national campaign kicks off Oct. 31, in health unit in Imbaba, Giza- Deena Romia/YOUM7
Anti-measles vaccination national campaign kicks off Oct. 31, in health unit in Imbaba, Giza- Deena Romia/YOUM7
Undersecretary of Health Minister in Giza, Mohamed Azmy said that the campaign will include children at 1157 primary schools and 3224 nurseries in the governorate.
The cost of the campaign is estimated at 165 million EGP; some 82,000 trained medical crew members are partaking in the campaign, according to the statement.
The ministry has also stated it is using MMR, a “safe vaccine” against measles and Rubella.
Since January 2015, a total of 5,058 children have been infected with the disease, Youm7 reported.
In 2014, the rate of infection among children reached some 1,740 cases, according to press statements by former Minister of Health Adel el-Adawy. Deaths cases of at least six were reported last year.
Adawy announced the launching of the anti-measles national vaccination campaign, which aims to reduce the rate of infection to be one case per each million citizen, after the disease was spotted “active” during the year 2014 with infection rate reaching 1.8 cases per each 100 citizens.
Measles is among the most contagious viral diseases, and its symptoms include fever, conjunctivitis, runny nose, cough and skin rash, which is often the first sign of illness.