Measles is not harmless and kids do not grow out of it. One in three under five needs hospitalisation after contracting.
Even as we write this, we can hear the rabid anti-vaxxers dismissing it as “MSM” or “Big Pharma” lies – but the truth is that increasing vaccine coverage has helped avert nearly 20 million measles-related deaths in Africa since 2000.
That’s according to the World Health Organisation, which says that during the same timeframe, routine immunisation protected more than 500 million children across Africa against a range of other deadly diseases.
Sadly, even as that progress is being noted on our continent, in the US and parts of Europe, parents are preventing their children from getting measles jabs, often on the basis that measles is not deadly and that kids will develop immunity or “grow out of it.”
That is simply not true.
The disease is highly dangerous for children, so an internet search tells us, particularly those under age five.
It can cause severe complications like pneumonia, brain swelling (encephalitis) and death.
It is extremely contagious, often requiring hospitalisation for nearly one in three children under five who contract it.
The disease can cause long-term harm to the immune system.
Why on earth would you play God and decide to withhold a potentially life-saving medication from such a vulnerable section of society?
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