WEBCLIP (EN 16:9) - Experts Explain The World’s Largest Measles Outbreak in DRC

While some viral diseases like COVID-19 and Ebola make headlines, most people don’t know that measles remains a leading killer of young children in many parts of the world. Right now, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is facing the largest outbreak of measles in a decade. In the past year alone, over 310,000 people have been infected and more than 6,000 people have died--the vast majority of them children. We sat down with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontiéres (MSF) experts Dr. Northan Hurtado and Dr. Matthew Coldiron to talk about why so many people are dying from measles when there is a safe and effective vaccine. We also discussed some of the lesser known science about measles, and what MSF is doing to stop the deadly epidemic still raging in DRC.

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Experts Explain the World's Largest Measles Outbreak in DRC

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Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF308176

Date taken / Date Recorded 06/03/2020 12:00 AM

Country Democratic Republic of Congo

Commissioning section MSF-UNITED STATES

Photographer / videographer / producer Negin Allamehzadeh

Usage Rights (MSF) Advertising Campaign, External Media, MSF Fundraising, MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available yes

Editor's rating ★★★★★★ (B)

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

Duration 3m33s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 409.75 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist Transcript:

Dr. Matthew Coldiron
I think people often think about Ebola and they think this is a very deadly disease and maybe people don't think the same thing about measles. But we know that measles is a particularly deadly outbreak. It’s a nasty virus. It’s extremely, extremely contagious.

Experts Explain The World’s Largest Measles Outbreak

Dr. Northan Hurtado
We have a big measles outbreak ongoing in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Which is at the same time suffering from another big outbreak, that is an Ebola outbreak that is affecting the eastern part of the country.
(0:32)
Ebola has had around 3,400 cases. But at the same time [with] measles, last year we had around 300,000 cases and more than 6,000 deaths estimated.

Dr. Matthew Coldiron
And in terms of absolute numbers, that's a lot more than have died of Ebola in the current outbreak. Measles is a very deadly disease.

Dr. Northan Hurtado
But you were telling me something about, you know, how measles starts to do some funny things with the immune system.

Dr. Matthew Coldiron
Yeah, and now this is super interesting stuff. (1:03) Before you have measles, let's say you've been exposed to malaria, you've been exposed to pneumonia or diarrhea, and your body develops natural immunity to these other diseases. It develops these antibodies. The measles virus basically sets a reset button on your body's immune system. And it causes you to lose a lot of this immunity that you've already developed.

Dr. Northan Hurtado
That means that—

Dr. Matthew Coldiron
Wipes the slate clean.

Dr. Northan Hurtado
—all of this immunity that protects me a little bit completely disappears.

Dr. Matthew Coldiron
(1:31) And I think the super important thing is the measles vaccine. Measles vaccine works. It is so important. And in the DRC, basic vaccine coverage is low.
I mean, this is to me the sad part, you know. There are outbreaks in America, there are outbreaks in Europe because vaccine coverage is low because people choose not to be vaccinated.
But the problem in the Congo—in DRC—now, it's not that people are afraid of the vaccine, it’s that people want the vaccine, they just can't get it. (2:01)
The DRC is a country that's basically the size of Western Europe. And it has, like, a few hundred miles of paved road and that's it. So the road transport is very limited. A lot of places are accessible only by river, by motorbike.

Dr. Northan Hurtado
It takes, you know, hours, days, and sometimes even weeks just to reach some of the most isolated places. So these people, in fact, they are isolated, not only from basic health care, but even preventive measures like vaccination. (2:32)

Dr. Matthew Coldiron
Because it is so contagious, it moves so fast, it's tough to keep up. It's tough to keep in front of the epidemic.

Dr. Northan Hurtado
MSF has provided already around 50,000 treatments in the last few years for measles. And, as well, around 1.5 million people vaccinated against measles.

Dr. Matthew Coldiron
In the end, this epidemic is not over in the DRC. There are still cases. There's going to be tens of thousands of more cases, most likely, maybe even more. To me, what’s… (3:00) it's frustrating, but it's also really sad, is that unless something massive changes, you and I are going to be sitting here four more years from now having the exact same conversation—

Dr. Northan Hurtado
Exactly.

Dr. Matthew Coldiron
—about another big measles outbreak. And the question is, how you change the system enough. What I think needs to change over the long term is that we need to really be improving routine vaccination coverage.

Measles Vaccination Campaign

Vaccination Campaign

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