The United Nations-backed campaign to immunize nearly 10 million youngsters in Nepal, in the backdrop that measles killed 5,000 Nepalese children each year, by early 2005 is continuing unabated, with additional assurance of cooperation from all parties to the current conflict in the Himalayan kingdom, UN announced here.
When the campaign kicked off in September, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) voiced concern over reports that a health facility had been destroyed, although it said it was confident that the campaign would not be jeopardized in the country where Maoist rebels are fighting against the government.
The UNICEF said the campaign's first phase was completed successfully in all 35 districts of the eastern and central regions last month although there were some disruptions in the initial stages, with vaccine supplies being destroyed or looted. But now the supplies have been replenished.
UNICEF, the UN World Health Organization, and their partners are working to inform families of how critical the vaccine is for all their children, not just babies or young children, and also to help get families to the vaccination posts. Measles vaccination is already part of the Nepalese Ministry of Health's routine immunization programme, but some 20 per cent of children have still not been immunized, UN said in the release.
"Each year, measles attacks about 150,000 children in Nepal, of which some 5,000 die," UNICEF representative Suomi Sakai said.