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30/06/2006 - ERITREA- Measles vaccination campaign launched.

NAIROBI, 30 June (IRIN) - A nationwide measles vaccination campaign aimed at children aged 6-months to five-years against has been launched in Eritrea, the health ministry has announced.

The campaign began on Wednesday and is expected to last until 2 July. It is hoped that five million children will benefit from the campaign, which also involves the distribution of Vitamin A tablets. Parents are being urged to take their children to the nearest health centres for vaccination.

According to the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), measles is a major killer of young children despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine for the past 40 years. An estimated 454,000 people worldwide, the majority of them children, died from measles in 2004.

In April, the UN granted US $450,000 from the newly-created Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to WHO for life-saving programmes including vaccination campaigns in Eritrea.

The disease is an acute viral respiratory illness associated with high fever, rashes and vomiting.

The current campaign follows similar operations carried out in 2003 (which targeted children between the age of nine-months and 15-years) and in 2000.

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