GENEVA: With all eyes on the rapid global spread of the novel coronavirus, health experts fear a drop in routine vaccinations could fuel other, potentially deadlier outbreaks of diseases like measles.

With nearly half of the world’s population told to stay at home, many parents are having to postpone taking their children in for routine immunisations, while big vaccine drives have been halted, leaving many vulnerable to a range of infectious diseases.

“Measles is probably number one in my worry list at the current time,” Seth Berkley, who heads the Gavi Vaccine Alliance, said.

He warned of the impact that an outbreak of measles or other diseases could have on health services already reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Routine immunisation is absolutely critical always, but is particularly critical at a time like this because if other outbreaks occur, they will overwhelm the health system,” Berkley said.

He pointed out that during the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu region, which has killed nearly 2,300 people since mid-2018, measles has proved more deadly.

“Everybody was focused on Ebola, but 2.5 times the number of people died in the country from measles than died from Ebola,” he said.

Gavi provides vaccines against a wide range of diseases for the 60 percent of the world’s children who live in developing countries.

While it may not be too big a deal to delay vaccines for some of those diseases for a few months, timely immunisation against the more contagious ones like measles is essential.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2020