WHO warns of disease threat in Syria

While debate continues on the whether combatants have used chemical weapons, the World Health Organization reports that nearly eradicated diseases are returning to Syria: The WHO says cases of measles have reappeared in Syria, due to problems running national vaccination campaigns. The number of confirmed cases of measles in the first quarter of 2013 reached ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

While debate continues on the whether combatants have used chemical weapons, the World Health Organization reports that nearly eradicated diseases are returning to Syria:

While debate continues on the whether combatants have used chemical weapons, the World Health Organization reports that nearly eradicated diseases are returning to Syria:

The WHO says cases of measles have reappeared in Syria, due to problems running national vaccination campaigns.

The number of confirmed cases of measles in the first quarter of 2013 reached 139, compared with no cases in the whole of 2010 and 2011, says the WHO.

There have also been reports of measles, tuberculosis and cutaneous leishmaniasis – a disease carried by insects – among displaced Syrians in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey.

"Jordan had previously reported zero cases of measles for three years, and was planning to officially declare that it was measles-free," said Dr Mahjour.

"The situation will deteriorate if prevention and control measures are not scaled up soon."

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

Tag: War

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