Measles Epidemic Rocks Madagascar

The outbreak has infected 50,000 people and killed 300, most of them children, since cases began to crop up in October 2018.

Written byJef Akst
| 2 min read

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While the US faces measles outbreaks from New York to Washington state, reigniting discussions about the risk of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children, Madagascar has been fighting the worst eruption of the disease in decades. Since October, the African island nation has seen more than 50,000 cases of the highly contagious viral infection, which has so far taken the lives of more than 300 people, mostly kids, the country’s secretary general of the ministry of health tells CNN. That’s more than double the numbers reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) in mid-January.

“We heard rumblings of a measles outbreak in the capital between December and January and I just knew we were going to get hit,” Lon Kightlinger, a former South Dakota state epidemiologist and regular Peace Corp volunteer in Madagascar, tells CNN. “Our one doctor here, who has been [a] practicing physician for 12 years, had ...

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  • Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.

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