Measles hits parts of Iraq

Iraqi health officials reported an outbreak of hundreds of cases of measles throughout parts of the country where health services are poor. Ihsan Jaafar with the Iraqi Health Ministry said officials in several provinces, from Nasiriyah in the south to central Baghdad and northern Kirkuk, reported measles cases, the United Nations' humanitarian news agency, IRIN, reports. Jaafar said vaccination teams were unable to reach sensitive members of the population in parts of the country because of militant fighting. "Over the past three years our vaccination teams were not able to reach the restive areas where fighting was a daily routine and where the rate of the vaccination operations was low and in some cases zero," he said. The Health Ministry said it plans a nationwide vaccination campaign scheduled for March 1 in all of the schools in Iraq, thanks in part to the improved security situation in the country. The World Health Organization puts measles as one of the deadliest diseases inflicting young children across the globe.