Measles Death Toll Tops 900 in Afghanistan, WHO Says

A measles epidemic that is raging in northern Afghanistan has claimed the lives of more than 900 people, many of them children, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

The sharp increase in the death toll stems from an inability to get medical help to the remote mountainous areas hardest hit by the epidemic, said Sahibjan Kakawazi, the WHO information officer in neighboring Pakistan.

Most of the deaths have occurred in Afghanistan’s northern Badakhshan and Samangan provinces and in Herat to the west.

Since January, nearly 600 children have died in Badakhshan, 225 miles north of Kabul, the Afghan capital, he said.

Dr. Ahmed Zia, a public health officer in Badakhshan, put the death toll at 100. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear, but the areas are remote and information often takes weeks to reach populated centers.

In Samangan’s Dara-i-Suf district, where fighting has raged between the ruling Taliban and opposition forces, WHO officials have reported as many as 250 measles deaths, citing inadequate medical help and unsanitary conditions.

In western Herat, as many as 79 children have died, Kakawazi said.

“We are trying to supply vaccines and medicines to the worst-hit areas, but snow and difficult mountain roads are making the task difficult,” he said.

Fighting and bad weather have hindered the distribution of vaccines.

“We are rushing in emergency supplies, but often it takes weeks to deliver medicines on donkeys,” Kakawazi said.

The Taliban, who rule 90% of Afghanistan, are battling the northern-based opposition in a bid to extend their rule.