Measles Deaths Down With Access to Vaccine
From Times Wire Reports
Worldwide measles deaths dropped 48% in six years as immunization efforts reached more children in sub-Saharan Africa, the United Nations said Friday.
The World Health Organization and the U.N. Children’s Fund said the fall in deaths to 454,000 in 2004 from 871,000 in 1999 was “an outstanding public-health success story.” A safe, cheap and effective measles vaccine has been available since the 1960s, but the highly infectious disease is still a major killer of children in developing countries.
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