BREAKING NEWS

UN: At least 20,000 infected in southeast Congo measles outbreak

A measles outbreak in the copper-mining Katanga province in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 315 people and infected at least 20,000, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
Hundreds more deaths have likely not been documented due to difficulties accessing remote areas, The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a draft report on the province's worst outbreak of the disease since 2010-11.
"The measles epidemic in the province of Katanga is only worsening and gaining ground," said the report seen by Reuters.
More than $2.4 million will be needed to organise vaccination drives and treat those already infected in the southeastern province, it said.
Some 1,085 people died and about 77,000 were infected in the 2010-11 epidemic, according to a study in the scientific journal BMC Infectious Diseases.