Science Focus
original post »The Ebola crisis in West Africa is one of the most striking public health emergencies in recent years. According to the Centers for Disease Control, this fast-spreading virus has killed over 9,951 people since the start of the outbreak in December of 2013. Currently, there are no FDA-approved vaccines or antiviral treatments for Ebola, and patients’ survival depends on their own immune response and the supportive care they receive. The mortality rate for this disease is currently estimated to be approximately 70 percent by the World Health Organization.
Now a new study published in the journal Science suggests that the Ebola crisis could leave countries vulnerable to epidemics of a more common virus, measles, due to its disruption of routine health care services in affected areas.
The authors of this study are affiliated with some of the most prominent public health institutions in the world, including Princeton University, Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the National Institutes of Health. They project that due to the loss of healthcare workers caused by the Ebola crisis, a cluster of children unvaccinated for measles will accumulate in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Because of the susceptibility of this population, the investigators expect a regional measles outbreak of 127,000 to 227,000 cases after 18 months, which will result in 2,000 to 16,000 measles-related deaths in the region.
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