Measles

The NYTimes has a good post on measles eradification. People don't realize that Measles is a killer of children.And measles Vaccine is expensive.

The linked report is about eradicating Measles in Nepal.

Two of the confirmed deaths in Ghaziabad were the sons of a laborer, Kishore Lal. "The child was in my lap when he breathed his last," Mr. Lal said, tears spilling down his gaunt cheeks as he described the death of Ramjanak, 5, last April. Amit, the other dead son, was 3.

A month after Amit's death, Mr. Lal and his wife squatted listlessly in front of their small hut. "We don't feel like working," he said. "We don't feel like eating."

In a nearby lane, Tuntun Paswan, 32, and his wife, Ramdhana Devi, 28, also mourned the death of their son, Karan, 2. He passed away in the middle of the night in his mother's arms.

They buried the toddler, with his rattle and plastic bat, by the Hindon River.

...............................................

Good reporter. Too many people assume since kids die in theDi third world, that the people are used to it.
Every time National Geographic channel puts up a "tiger eating people" or "animals attacking people who encroach on their environment" I go up the wall...PEOPLE MATTER, you assholes.

Now, it's been twenty plus years since I left Africa, but the problem is still the same.

Measles kills malnourished kids.

But when I was there, the vaccine cost one dollar a shot. So we gave one third of the dose (which did work) which cost us 30 cents and asked the moms to pay 10 cents.

Some of them couldn't afford ten cents, so we left them work for the money.

But when we had an epidemic, some of the babies got measles, so we had to give the shot under 12 months, so the immunity was partial.

Translation: They got sick but didn't die.

Nowadays, we give "booster" shots so they kids won't get measles as teenagers for the same reason, the shot isn't perfect protection.

One family, however, was a father who belonged to a sect of African religion that believed only in faith healing. He was an SOB also, and had five wives. Wife number two had five kids, and he rarely helped her with food or money, although he helped himself to his rights (she was pregnant with twins)...and so he forbad her to have the kids go to our baby clinic.

So all five kids came in with measles, and four died...

There is a follow up to the story. The next year, the twins came into our malnutrition center, and were found to have TB...so we reported him to the local TB officer, who had him forcibly sent to the TB sanitarium for a year's treatment of his active TB.

We figure that the wife needed a year's rest from him...