Serious measles epidemic in Burkina Faso

Médecins Sans Frontières provides care to measles patients and asks for the announced mass vaccination campaign to be launched as soon as possible.

Burkina Faso is currently stricken by the most serious outbreak of measles it has seen for the last few decades. According to the Ministry of Health 45,000 people, including nearly 300 who have died, have been recorded with measles since the start of the year. Most of them were children under five. While the peak of the epidemic seems to have passed, 2,600 new patients are being registered every week in the country.

Since March, Médecins Sans Frontières has provided free treatments and care to people with measles in five state-run health care facilities in the country’s capital, Ouagadougou. In three districts in the East of the country, since the beginning of May, Médecins Sans Frontières teams have been offering free care for measles patients in three health centres and supporting Ministry of Health facilities – with the donation of treatments and referral of complicated cases to Médecins Sans Frontières structures.

“We are still treating around 850 new patients every week in the Médecins Sans Frontières-supported structures,” says François Giddey, the Médecins Sans Frontières Head of mission in Burkina Faso. “But in a number of other health facilities free treatment is not systematic and it is limiting people’s access to treatments, especially for the poor.”

Even when medical care is provided free of charge, people are not always aware of it. “Our fear is that many sick people don’t go to medical structures because they expect to have to pay for care,” says Giddey. “The toll of this measles epidemic, already terrible, may actually be much higher.”

It is estimated that about 10 per cent of measles patients die if they are not treated. Every year in the world, measles kills some 200,000 people, mainly young children in low-income countries. Yet measles is a known disease, and simple treatment and an effective vaccine exist.

“With a vaccination three months earlier, many deaths would have been avoided.” – François Giddey, Médecins Sans Frontières Head of mission

Carrying out vaccination campaigns rapidly limits the mortality associated with such measles outbreaks in Africa.

Alerted by the rising number of measles cases, Médecins Sans Frontières mobilised an emergency team in early March and was ready to carry out a vaccination campaign jointly with the Ministry of Health throughout the five districts of Ouagadougou. In this region, which is the most affected by the epidemic, the target population is estimated to be around 1.4 million people. Médecins Sans Frontières' proposal was not accepted, and five months after the first measles cases appeared, vaccination has still not started in any district.

Giddey says: “Following discussions between the authorities, the World Health Organisation, and donors, a mass vaccination campaign against measles has been announced for June. No matter who does the vaccinating we just hope that the campaign will be started as soon as possible. With a vaccination three months earlier, many deaths would have been avoided.”


Médecins Sans Frontières has been working in Burkina Faso since 1995. The organisation currently runs programmes addressing malnutrition and HIV/AIDS. In 2007, Médecins Sans Frontières launched a programme to decentralise nutritional treatment in Yako and Titao districts, in the north. In Ouagadougou, Médecins Sans Frontières' HIV/AIDS programme has provided care for about 5,000 patients, among whom 4,000 are following an antiretroviral therapy. Medical and psychological programmes for street girls, which were started in 2005, have just been handed over to a local organisation.