In Madagascar, one of the world’s poorest countries, parents are desperate to vaccinate their children, many trudging for miles to get to clinics for shots.
ANTANANARIVO - Two months ago, giggles floated through the home of fisherman Dada as his four-year-old son played ball outside with his two younger cousins on one of Madagascar’s famed sun-soaked beaches.
Fisherman Dada – like many Malagasy, he only uses one name – had taken his son Limberaza to be vaccinated once already in their home in the southern district of Fort Dauphin. By then Dada’s niece, three-year-old Martina, was also sick. Her weeping mother Martine stroked her face as her fever spiked.That evening, his other sister Pela’s three-year-old son Mario died as she clutched his hands.The three cousins are among the almost 1,000 people, mostly children, who have died from measles in Madagascar since October.
Europe last year saw its highest level of measles cases in a decade, and in January, the WHO named “vaccine hesitancy” - the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate - as one of the top ten global health threats for 2019. The country is $3 million short of the $7 million needed for enough measles vaccines to cover its population, the WHO said last month.
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