Médecins Sans Frontières - REPORT: Increase in measles cases in Yemen (ENG)

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF259984

Date taken / Date Recorded 06/01/2019 12:00 AM

Country Yemen

Commissioning section MSF-FRANCE

Photographer / videographer / producer Nuha Mohammed

Copyright MSF

Usage Rights (MSF) MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★★★ (C)

Video format h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 1m48s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 177.96 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist Paul Eze, project medical referent, MSF (in english)
We receive about 25 to 35 measles cases every week, mostly children coming from rural areas and virtually all of them have never been vaccinated.

Onscreen text :
Increasing numbers of patients suffering from measles arrive at this hospital in Abs every day

MSF teams across Yemen have seen an increase in measles
They treated 1,787 children in 2018

Paul Eze, project medical referent, MSF (in english)
Because of the ongoing conflict, this has had an impact on the health system which has collapsed, to the point that routine vaccination is almost impossible. As a result, we’ve had the return of vaccine-preventable diseases. Image this, in the 21st century, where some of these diseases have been completely eliminated in most countries of the world. Now we have ongoing outbreaks of measles, we have ongoing outbreaks of diphtheria, whooping cough, we have ongoing outbreaks of meningitis... And these are diseases that are easily prevented by routine vaccination.

Onscreeen text :
Measles is a highly contagious disease that can cause serious illness and even death
if left untreated

Paul Eze, project medical referent, MSF (in english)
We used to have 4 beds for measles in the isolation room. But now we have 28 beds for measles alone, and the bed occupancy rate is very high. The beds are almost always fully occupied.
This has gone beyond our capacity

Onscreen text :
In Yemen, vaccination is needed to prevent further outbreaks of disease such as cholera, diphtheria and measles.