Visual Entry 2: The Outbreak of Measles

For our second visual entry, we take a look into the "international magniscope" of the recent progress of measles:

 

The collectively known illness, measles, is an airborne viral disease that blots the human body with a red, flat rash alongside complications stemming from pneumonia, diarrhea and blindness. According to a 2014 weekly release by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), continual measles outbreaks in third-world countries like Africa have sustained increased rates of over 37,000 reported cases; present-day U.S. national rate does not even come close to this explosive number.

For decades, treatment for the illness has been handled via vaccination, yet this effective process has endured stagnated progress in the wake of abrupt decrease in international funding support.

In 2010 findings conducted by UNICEF, issues deriving from poor healthcare systems and population displacement have stalled various campaigns and promotional awareness tactics in educating the third-world public of concerns and treatment for measles.

This continual issue has prompted responses from medical professionals like UNICEF’s Senior Health Advisor, Robert Kezaala, who expressed his concerns of the matter to World Health Organization (WHO), addressing that the continual withdrawal in funding supports could likely tamper significant reduction rates in mortality, where aid of vaccination was signified as a rescue tool for countless number of lives.

Problematically, the withdrawal has severely altered anonymous health organizations’ 2015 goal in eliminating measles cases, according to a late 2014 news release by World Health Organization. Additional concern was further reported, where six accompanying global countries such as India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Democratic Republic of Congo, were among the listed with a combined death toll of 21.5 million in unvaccinated children, ranking the sextet highest in global death rates caused by measles.

In December 2014, the African press took note of a disconcerting outbreak in several provinces throughout South Africa, one of the wealthiest nations of Africa. Nevertheless, this event abundantly echoes similar measures where alternative wealthy African nations like petroleum powerhouse Equatorial Guinea accounts to only retaining 42% of immunized population; leaving scares of potential contraction of measles, as outlined in a 2015 published article by TIME Magazine.

The recent horrendous discoveries have since then ignited intense urgency by several global health organizations. Plans to restore funding support and awareness campaigns have been brought to immediate attention alongside proposal of tackling barriers that obstruct immunization efforts.

Other plans to kick-start further health awareness have propelled organizations like Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in proposing the heightening of Meningococcal Conjugate Vaccine (MCV) doses to meet substantial improvement in immunization in children (outlined as one of the several steps in implementing The Global Vaccine Action Plan).

In additional efforts, global health organization UNICEF pledges to attain their annual goal in eliminating regional measles cases. The organization is additionally hopeful that the proposed “Strategic Plan” will be effective by the latter of 2020, where the program works to implement immunization programs and to assist in rapidly improving the lives of children and their parents throughout the world.