Ebola epidemic: Why kids are at higher risk

New York, March 13: The Ebola crisis has caused major disruptions in the healthcare systems in West Africa, which has led to significant decreases in vaccitions for childhood diseases. The shortage of vaccition and allied medical support has put kids at risk for preventable diseases, researchers find. Should a large measles outbreak occur in the region, nearly twice as many people could be sickened by the disease and thousands more could die, the researchers reported.

For every month of interruption in the healthcare system, they say, an additiol 20,000 children between the ages of nine months and five years become susceptible to measles. “The secondary effects of Ebola — both in childhood infections and other health outcomes — are potentially as devastating in terms of loss of life as the disease itself,” said study leader Justin Lessler from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

In the event of a large regiol measles outbreak, the number of estimated cases was roughly 127,000 before Ebola and, after 18 months of interruption, an additiol 100,000 cases would be estimated to occur. (IANS)