Many children coming from the Nuba Mountains since the end of November have been diagnosed with measles, according to Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). MSF says it has admitted 93 patients with measles at its hospital in Yida refugee camp.

"Many of the sick children recently arrived in Yida after fleeing with their families from Sudan’s Nuba Mountain region, where bombardments and fighting between rebels and the Sudanese government forces have intensified of late," reads an MSF press release.

The camp of 70,000 refugees is "crowded", according to MSF, making refugees more susceptible to the measles virus that spreads with the droplets from the mouth or nose of infected persons. Children under five and pregnant women are most at risk.

“In a refugee setting, one single case of measles is considered an outbreak,” says Ahmed Mohama Mahat, MSF’s vaccination coordinator in Yida. “And these people arriving in Yida from the Nuba Mountains are in very bad conditions; they have not been vaccinated for a long time.”

In collaboration with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), MSF has launched a mass vaccination campaign aiming to vaccinate 90 percent of the children in the camps and the nearby host communities.

This targets an estimated 35,000 children in all over a period of five days.

More than 100 people have been recruited from the camp’s population to assist with the campaign. Nine vaccination sites have been set up throughout Yida, each managed by teams of 12 that consist of a supervisor, vaccinators, preparers, watchmen, crowd controllers, and mobilizers.

“The community health workers are very important for our work here and especially for the success of a mass vaccination campaign like this,” says Mahat. “They are the eyes and ears of MSF in the community, and the link between the hospital and the community."