Measles outbreak infects thousands

A measles outbreak has killed at least 704 children and infected thousands of others across Zimbabwe, highlighting the risks of faltering childhood immunization campaigns around the globe.

The outbreak is the result of a grim confluence of factors endangering child health in many countries.

Routine immunization dropped significantly in Zimbabwe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anxious parents stayed away from health centers; health care workers were reassigned from routine vaccination programs to the COVID-19

pandemic response; and school closures and lengthy lockdowns canceled the usual outreach campaigns.

Vaccination coverage was already flagging in Zimbabwe before the pandemic, declining each year since 2017, because a decadeslong political and economic crisis has gutted the public health system.

Zimbabwe’s health system is desperately short-staffed. Health care workers have moved to neighboring South Africa or high-income countries for jobs where they will earn much more than the meager wages in Zimbabwe that often don’t arrive at all.