The Fastest Growing Epidemic Internationally is Preventable: Measles and the Democratic Republic of Congo
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/28/africa/measles-ebola-drc/index.html
While citizens of developed nations no longer need to fear outbreaks of preventable diseases, the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo are less lucky. Measles is the current epidemic the country is facing, which has resulted in over 5,000 deaths since the beginning of 2019. Over 90% of these deaths were children under the age of 5 who were likely malnourished or had weakened immune systems due to other diseases. Despite a vaccine existing for measles, the nation faces what UNICEF refers to as, “the world’s largest and fastest-moving epidemic” as a result of cultural beliefs, healthcare practices, and nation-wide violence.
The epidemic the Democratic Republic of Congo is facing can be analyzed using the basic reproductive number R0, which is found by multiplying the number of contacts a person has, k, by the probability the disease will transmit from one person to the next, p. The goal for eliminating measles is for R0 to be reduced to be less than or equal to 1, as this would ensure the disease dies out after a finite number of waves. Thus, it is important for the values for k and p to be reduced to eliminate measles. Currently, the disease is spreading so rapidly due to high values for both k and p for subgroups of the population. Based on the current measles mortality rate, children under five must have a higher R0 relative to the rest of the population. This is a reasonable claim, as the article discusses how the children who do become infected already have weakened immune systems, which for this analysis can said to directly increase their p value and thus their susceptibility to measles. In terms of an increased k value, this can be said to be a result of mistrust and fear in the Congo’s society of governmental officials. A video within the article discusses how fear of authority prevents citizens from entering health facilities, where they could be quarantined from the outside. Instead of accepting international assistance, many citizens choose instead to close their doors to outsiders and remain in close spaces with potentially infected individuals. Children under 5, who again are most susceptible to measles, may be kept around other people by force of their family, who fear what may happen if they let their children be taken to a health facility.
International organizations such as WHO and UNICEF continue efforts to decrease the R0 for the nation through vaccination efforts and education on the epidemic as an effort to increase trust with the outside world. While their efforts do decrease the spread of measles, both organizations recognize that the country needs an improved health care system to guarantee a long-term solution to preventable disease epidemics.