A student receives a measles vaccine injection at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Ecublens near Lausanne March 23, 2009.A student receives a measles vaccine injection at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Ecublens near Lausanne March 23, 2009.
The percentage of children in Tigray receiving routine vaccines has fallen below 10% this year, data from the Tigray Health Bureau shows, undoing years of government efforts to boost immunisation rates. UN commission of human rights experts says a ceasefire between March and late August between Tigray and federal forces allowed in a trickle of medical aid but humanitarian access has been suspended since fighting resumed. They had reasonable grounds to believe that the denial of access to healthcare and other aid by federal authorities amounts to a crime against humanity.
There have been measles outbreaks in 10 of the region’s 35 districts since the war began and 25 cases of neonatal tetanus this year compared to just two in each of the previous three years.