Measles is killing more people in the DRC than Ebola?and faster

As the world anxiously monitors the outbreak of Ebola in Democratic Republic of the Congo, health officials note that a measles outbreak declared last month in the country has killed more people—mostly children—and faster.Further ReadingWhat to know about measles in the US as case count breaks recordSince January 2019, officials have recorded over 100,000 measles cases in the DRC, mostly in children, and nearly 2,000 have died. Today, the DRC health ministry decided to send the pastor back to Butembo for further treatment, according to Doctors without Borders."Because of the speed with which the patient was identified and isolated, and the identification of all the other bus passengers coming from Butembo, the risk of it spreading in the rest of the city of Goma is small," the ministry said in a statement.So far, the Ebola outbreak has largely stayed in DRC's North Kivu and Ituri provinces, which sit on the eastern side of the country and border South Sudan, Uganda, and Rwanda. The health ministry declared an outbreak on June 10 and noted a 700% spike in the case count over the count in the first half of last year."And yet it gets little international attention," Dr. Tedro noted, adding that malaria also kills more than 50,000 people each year in the DRC.Just like with the Ebola outbreak, violence, population movements, and community fear have kept the measles outbreak simmering."We often talk about the need to bridge the humanitarian-development nexus," Dr. Tedro said.