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 Cradled by her mother, Dobo lies in the ward of a health center in a
remote town in northern Democratic Republic of Congo where mosquito
nets on sticks droop over rusting metal beds, and doctors work
frantically to contain a deadly virus.
Dobo does not have the new coronavirus or Ebola. She has measles, a
preventable but extremely contagious disease that since January 2019
has ripped through Congo unchecked into remote regions. Some 6,400
people have died, according to official figures, though healthcare
workers say the number is likely much higher because reporting rates
are so low.
"I feel guilty because I’m afraid people might say it’s because I
didn't get my daughter treatment quickly," Dobo’s mother Wanea
Mabele said over her writhing child’s rattling breath.
Mabele is hardly to blame. Underfunded and delayed government
vaccination drives in the vast Central African nation have left
millions of hard-to-reach children vulnerable.
Dud vaccines have left thousands of others at risk without knowing,
local and international health workers say, in a nation of 81
million people that is ten times the size of Britain.
CORONAVIRUS, EBOLA DIVERT ATTENTION
Complicating matters, authorities have funneled hundreds of millions
of dollars and manpower into a 19-month Ebola outbreak in the east
that has killed over 2,000 people, weakening efforts to contain
measles, health officials say. Ebola is finally on the wane, but
COVID-19 threatens to steal the limelight.
After a first case in the capital Kinshasa this month, reported
infections rose to 18 by the weekend.
"Priority will be given to COVID-19 in the coming weeks or months
depending on the trend of the disease. Consequently, we will face
challenges in resources mobilization for measles," said Vincent
Sodjinou, who leads the measles response for the World Heath
Organization (WHO).
Measles is on the rise globally, but Congo is worst hit.
The disease, contracted when a carrier coughs or sneezes, carries
risks of brain damage, blindness and deafness.
Dobo’s ward sits among the palm and mango trees of Busu-Mandji, a
dilapidated old colonial town deep in the jungle, 1,000 kilometers
(621 miles) from Kinshasa. The nearest paved road is 125 km south in
the city of Lisala.
Keeping vaccines refrigerated for the duration of the journey from
the capital is vital but tricky. On a recent vaccination campaign,
medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) flew 2,700 vials to
Lisala in large cool boxes fitted with digital thermometers to
ensure the temperature remains between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius in
the equatorial heat.
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In Lisala, the boxes were lashed to the back of a dozen motorbikes for a
ten-hour ride along bamboo-thronged dirt tracks and precarious log bridges too
pitted for 4X4 vehicles.
During the 10-hour ride to Busu-Mandji, the convoy was halted by three flat
tyres, engine trouble and a broken chain. MSF workers said the vaccines remained
in the right temperature range.
TINY GRAVES
Congo's government has year-round vaccination campaigns, but there was no
emergency response targeting high risk areas until an October-December 2019
campaign. When the government vaccines did finally come, health workers say some
may have overheated.
Malnutrition and poorly-trained health workers make the vaccine, normally 85%
effective, less efficient.
The health ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
Mada Maddow lives at the edge of Macau, a village near Busu-Mandji where front
gardens are peppered with tiny plots of freshly-turned earth, each a child's
grave.
Her seven children were vaccinated in the December campaign, she said, but they
all subsequently contracted measles. One died.
It is unclear why the vaccines failed.
Official statistics suggest 100% of children have been vaccinated in the area,
said Mushadi Gidion, a local official from the health ministry.
But that calculation is based on 1984 census data: health workers have no idea
how many children actually need vaccinating, and there is no data on the
effectiveness of the vaccine after it is administered in this setting.
"There can be many causes that can lead to the epidemic," Mushadi said. "Perhaps
our vaccination campaign was not of high quality."
(Editing by Edward McAllister and Andrew Cawthorne)
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