KIGALI, Rwanda

Rwandan has launched a mass vaccination campaign against measles following an outbreak of the major child killer disease in the western part of the country, an official said Thursday.

Jose Nyamusore, division manager of the Epidemic Surveillance and Response Division at Rwanda Biomedical Center, told Anadolu Agency late Thursday that the disease outbreak was first reported on July 7 in Ngororero district, but later more cases were reported from a nearby district of Rutsiro.

The Ministry of Health has immediately launched a vaccination drive to contain the outbreak, he said.

He said a total of 50 cases of measles have so far been confirmed in the two districts 50, but there were no fatalities.

“The vaccination campaign against measles was launched on Monday targeting all children under 15 years and it is due to end on Friday [...] At least 80 percent of the children have so far been vaccinated,” he added.

Health officials in Ngororero district had put the number of targeted children for vaccination at about 70,000.

Nyamusore also appealed to parents to embrace routine vaccination for their children, saying it maximizes children protection.

The number of measles cases worldwide nearly quadrupled in the first quarter of 2019 to 112,163 compared to the same period last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in April.