Measles: Africa’s ‘Hidden Killer’

By Ronald V. DellumsNNPA For many Americans, the word “measles” conjures images of a long-forgotten disease that kept kids in bed with spots. But the picture in the developing world is more alarming. Measles kills about 395,000 children each year in poor countries, even though an effective vaccine has been available since 1963. While the devastation that HIV/AIDS is wreaking on the African continent is well documented, much less is known about the impact of measles, which today kills more children in Africa under the age of 5 than even AIDS. And measles is just one of the vaccine-preventable diseases that kill more than 4.5 million people each year. With a global death toll higher than AIDS, these forgotten illnesses are the world’s most copious “hidden killers.” Misplaced priorities are the root of this problem. People – and governments – are willing to spend enormous sums of money to treat diseases once people are sick, but prevention gets much less attention. The world spends more than $400 billion a year on treatment, yet only $6 billion – about 1.5 percent – on prevention through vaccines. At a time when the world is making heroic investments in global health treatment, world leaders must create a similar sense of urgency about developing and using vaccines to prevent infectious disease. Vaccines have long been the safest, most cost-effective weapon in humanity’s battle against infectious disease. Because vaccines are such a wise investment, a relatively minor funding increase could make a dramatic difference in terms of enhanced health and lives saved. By some estimates, the world faces a $3 billion annual shortfall to deliver new and existing vaccines to developing countries over the next decade. This shortfall is less than 1 percent of what the world spends on pharmaceuticals, making vaccines perhaps the greatest public health value in history. But there is some cause for hope. Under a British proposal, an International Finance Facility for Immunization would be created, and would issue bonds to provide urgently needed funding for vaccine and immunization services in the world’s poorest countries. This is a good first step. By investing in vaccines, donor governments can help break the cycle of disease that has trapped much of Africa in poverty for decades. The benefits of immunization extend beyond individuals. Entire societies can be protected when a critical mass of immunized people are able to prevent an epidemic from taking hold. However, to maintain this protection once the disease is no longer seen, people must continue to be vaccinated. Smallpox has been virtually wiped out by worldwide immunization campaigns, and polio is on its way. Strong public immunization programs in some countries have made diseases like measles, mumps and rubella virtually disappear. And we have seen only the beginning of what immunization can do. Last year, the world saw the first successful clinical trials of a new malaria vaccine that may be available by the end of this decade. More than 1 million African children die of malaria each year – that’s one child dying unnecessarily every 30 seconds – but this new vaccine offers hope. And new scientific advances in vaccines for a variety of diseases – from AIDS to tuberculosis – may eventually allow us to defeat some of humanity’s great plagues. Yet vaccines will have a measurable impact on public health only to the extent that they can be administered effectively. In developing countries in Africa, that is no easy task. We must also pay attention to human and physical infrastructure – more and better training of health professionals to administer vaccines, and better facilities in which to store and deliver them. Albert Sabin, the discoverer of the oral polio vaccine, once famously said: “A vaccine that sits on the shelf is useless.” So even as we develop new vaccines, we must ensure they are delivered to the African children who need them most. As the world’s attention turns to combating global health challenges, it is important to focus on the interventions that save the most lives. Ronald V. Dellums is a former Democratic congressman from California and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Constituency for Africa, a Washington, D.C. – based education and advocacy organization.