With over half-a-million children living in crowded camps with no sanitation, quake-hit Nepal is facing the threat of measles outbreaks, the UNICEF warned today.
"Measles is very contagious, and can potentially be deadly, and we fear it could spread very quickly in the often crowded conditions in the improvised camps where many children are living," said UNICEF's Representative in Nepal, Tomoo Hozumi.
More than half-a-million children are being targeted in an emergency vaccination drive in Nepal, Hozumi said.
Lack of shelter and sanitation are huge risk factors for disease - as the number of people who have fled their homes continues to grow, with many people now living next to their damaged houses.
According to figures available before the earthquake struck, around one in 10 children in Nepal is not vaccinated against measles, the UNICEF said.
"We have been working for decades to eliminate measles in Nepal. Unless we act now, there is a real risk of it re-emerging as a major threat for children - a setback for all of our collective efforts," Hozumi said.
In the first wave of the emergency response, health workers are working to immunise children under the age of five in informal settlements in the three densely populated districts in Kathmandu Valley - Bhaktapur, Kathmandu and Lalitpur.
The drive will continue in the coming weeks in the 12 districts worst-hit by the earthquake.
"We are working with partners to take urgent practical steps to mobilise tens of thousands of vaccines, as well as the cold chain facilities needed to store them at the right temperature and keep them effective," he said.
"We are doing everything possible to minimise the danger for children who have already been through so much"
Around 1.7 million children remain in urgent need of humanitarian aid in the worst-hit areas of Nepal after the April 25 devastating temblor that has killed at least 7,557 people.
