Measles has killed at least 16 children in the densely packed Indian city of Mumbai since the start of an outbreak in October. The disease is characterized by a high fever and a distinctive red rash. It can be contagious for days before the rash emerges and is often particularly dangerous for children under 5.

Experts have blamed a reduction in vaccination rates during the COVID-19 pandemic for the outbreaks, which have also been seen to a lesser degree in other cities across India.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, many children missed a dose. And now they have grown into another age group,” said Mangala Gomare, executive health officer at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Mumbai’s governing civic body.

The MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine is part of the national childhood immunization program, with two doses recommended for children between the ages of 9 months and 5 years.

Missing measles vaccine doses

Although measles is almost entirely preventable through vaccination, a 95% coverage rate is needed to create herd immunity and halt community spread. Once the number of unvaccinated children in an area reaches critical mass, the disease spreads, triggering an outbreak.

During the COVID pandemic, lockdowns and diverted resources caused disruption to routine childhood immunization programs, resulting in a significant drop in vaccination rates.

Source: India: Mumbai races to halt measles outbreak – DW – 12/23/2022

Any ban on girls’ education is a despicable attack on human rights and on Afghanistan, as a country. Afghanistan has suffered decades of brutal conflict, extreme poverty, starvation and climate-induced disasters. The people of Afghanistan have experienced excruciating hardship for far too long. How much more can the Afghan people take?

In preventing girls and women from going to school and higher education, 50% of the population is excluded from rebuilding Afghanistan, their communities and their families. There will be no female doctors, nurses or teachers to provide basic services to girls and women. There will be no Afghan children whose mothers or sisters can help them learn and develop.

As the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, Education Cannot Wait joins UN Secretary-General António Guterres in urging the de facto authorities to ensure equal access to education at all levels for women and girls. Afghanistan needs all of its people in order to rebuild from four decades of conflict.

All over the world, women and girls have a basic human right to an education. By denying them the inherent right to an education, the de facto authorities are causing great harm to the people of Afghanistan – girls, women, men, and boys alike.

Source: All Girls Must be Allowed to Return to Education in Afghanistan | Inter Press Service

Congress has passed changes to the arcane law that controls how it ratifies the winner of a presidential election.

Source: Congress approves new election rules in Jan. 6 response – Los Angeles Times

Carlson’s worldview is getting repudiated on one front after another.
— Read on www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/23/tucker-carlson-zelensky-speech-congress-2022-elections/

Nearly 37 million people in China may have been infected with Covid-19 on a single day this week, according to estimates from the government’s top health authority, making the country’s outbreak by far the world’s largest.

Source: China Estimates Covid Surge Is Infecting 37 Million People a Day – Slashdot