The Democratic Republic of Congo announces that the world’s worst measles outbreak which killed more than 7000 children under five-years-old is over.

The announcement by Health Minister Eteni Londondo  still requires authentication by the World Health Organization which a day earlier 

declared Africa free of wild polio.

The measles outbreak occurred 25-months ago in the south-eastern corner of the DRC and then spread to all 26 provinces.

It infected 335 000 children who suffered blindness, brain swelling, diarrhea and respiratory infection. 

Congo’s hard-pressed medical infrastructure mounted a massive vaccination programme targeting millions of children.

Fighting measles, they were also combatting an EBOLA outbreak that killed 2287 people, vaccine-induced polio, COVID 19, which has killed 251 of the nearly 10 000 people it sickened, and even the bubonic plague. 

The end of the Congolese outbreak doesn’t allow medics to take their foot off the gas there or in any low income country.

An article in The Lancet earlier this year quoted  Tanja  Ducomble and Etienne  Gignano of Medecins Sans Frontieres saying outbreaks occur every two years in the DRC another countries that have a gap in vaccinations and poor access to health care.

Madagascar, Chad and Nigeria are African countries still fighting outbreaks and further afield the Philippines, Yemen and Ukraine are currently experiencing extensive measles infections.

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The organisation has had to pulls it workers out of two treatment centers  torched by angry local residents.

Medicines Sans Frontiers blamed deepening community district for the failure of medical workers to contain the outbreak of the deadly hemorrhagic disease that already killed 570 people these past seven months.

MSF points to political, social and economic grievances in the eastern DRC and the overly militarized response to the EBOLA outbreak.

The organisation’s health care centers in Butembo and Katwa were burned down, forcing the health workers to withdraw.

There is a very real danger of EBOLA spreading across the DRC border into Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.  

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They say this violence has become politicized by the elections at the end of last year.

Two health centers closed by violence in eastern DRC have re-opened but without volunteers from Medicines Sans Frontiers who says it is impossible to carry out vital treatment and vaccinations there.

WHO manager Michel Yao says equipment and vehicles were damaged, making the task more difficult.

Focal point of the violence is Butembo that has close ties with neighbouring  Uganda.

More than 560 people have died in the latest EBOLA outbreak that’s become the second worst in recorded history. More than 300 people are infected.

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European rescuers reached them after they’d spent hours in the water — too late to prevent a number of deaths.

The migrants were packed into two rubber boats that were wrecked.

One of them suffered engine failure and the other began to deflate.

They came from Sudan, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Algeria and Egypt.

Medicines Sans Frontiers provided help to the survivors who clung to floating wreckage.

They included pregnant women, children and babies – 

some of whom suffered serious chemical burns from petrol in the water.

The organization says some of the the migrants are returned to detention camps in Libya where they are held in deplorable conditions.

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This warning from the World Health Organization as three patients escape quarantine in the first city the deadly haemorrhagic disease has reached.

Head of the WHO emergency response Peter Salama says the Ebola outbreak in the DRC is on a epidimiological knife edge.

Seven more cases have been reported and the death toll is 27.

At least 150 people have come into contact with each case and all of these have be be vaccinated.

Salama explains: “There are three separate chains of transmission we’re following. Each one has the potential to expand if not controlled.” 

Three patients escaped from quarantine in Mbandaka the Congo River port upstream from Kinshasa and Brazzaville and downstream from Bangui.

Medicines Sans Frontiers says two of them have been found dead. 

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The charity says the rate of refugee arrivals has increased almost five-fold in the last four months.

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Up to 10 000 refugees from Burundi continue pouring into Tanzania each month.

About 250 000 Burundian and Congolese refugees are squeezed into Tanzania’s three camps – which are now full.

MSF’s David Nash says this is rapidly becoming one of Africa’s biggest refugee crises.

There have been fears that food distribution may be cut due to lack of funds.

In October, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced a cut in food rations to 60% of the daily recommended nutritional intake. This measure was only narrowly avoided by a last-minute donation.

But as the number of refugee arrivals continues to grow, the risk of further cuts in the near future is a cause of concern.

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Graves are being dug daily to bury victims – mostly children – of the malnutrition in the second largest centre in Borno State that’s cut off by Boko Haram militants.

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A Medicines Sans Frontiers  team accessed Bama where 24 000 people, including 15 000 children, are living in a camp located in a hospital compound.

It discovered an acute health crisis.

A fifth of the more than 800 children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

Sixteen severely malnourished children at immediate risk of death were taken to the MSF in-patient therapeutic feeding centre in the state capital Maiduguri.

The team counted 1 233 graves near the camp that have been dug in the past year; 480 of them are for children who had starved to death at a rate of between eight and 30 a day.

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The principled stand by Medicines Sans Frontiers against what it calls Europe’s refugee shame will cost it more than $60 million a year.

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Medicines Sans Frontier say the European deal struck with Turkey to take back mainly Syrian migrants who cross the Agean to Greece goes against fundamental principles of providing assistance to people in need.

And MSF objects to Europe paying what it calls African dictators to stop migrants crossing the Mediterranean to gain access to Europe.

MSF itself has rescue vessels patrolling the sea that have saved around 3 500 people since April.

The charity will keep operating because it receives more than 90 percent of its funding from private sources.

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It argues that vigilance and rapid response capacities are vital for fighting the acute viral haemorrhagic disease transmitted by the same mosquitoes that carry the zika virus.

The fever that gets its name from the jaundice that affects some patients kills half of those acutely infected.

To date 736 cases have been confirmed in Angola and 48 in DRC.

Since these outbreaks were reported, Medicines Sans Frontiers has been supporting the Ministries of Health of both countries in treating patients and vaccinating people.

The World Health Organisation says that the outbreak does not currently constitute a public health emergency of international concern.

But MSF counters  that vigilance and rapid response capacities are essential to prevent the outbreak from spreading further.

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There have been calls for a better aid system and new focus on preventing trouble before it begins.

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Delegates at the first UN Humanitarian Summit were dealing with core commitment to use global leadership to prevent and end wars and uphold the norms of humanitarian law.

However these are presented as a declaration of intent and are not binding – which is what caused the medical watchdog group Medicines Sans Frontiers to shun the gathering.

Oxfam’s executive director Winnie Byanyima says it’s shameful how the rich world moans about the refugees, and leaves the poor to shoulder the burden. Europe must do more.

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