Measles in Indonesia kills five, sickens 700

A measles outbreak on Indonesia’s Sumba island has killed five children and sickened 711 more children, Unicef said today.

The UN children’s agency along with the World Health Organisation and the government had launched a vaccination campaign to contain the deadly virus.

It also is planning to vaccinate as many as 200,000 children aged six months to 15 years old on the island, located about 621 miles south-east of the capital, Jakarta, said Unicef spokesman John Budd.

Budd said the cause of the outbreak appeared to be low immunisation rates.

“There are areas, pockets if you like, particularly in more remote areas where the immunisation rates have dropped, which makes children far more vulnerable to preventable disease like measles and polio.”

Measles is one of the most highly contagious viruses, and in the developing world kills between 3% and 5% of the children who get it.