Congo's government has declared an epidemic of measles, which the latest health ministry figures show has now killed at least 1,500 people, over a hundred more than have died of Ebola.
While health officials have focused on the far deadlier hemorrhagic Ebola virus concentrated in Democratic Republic of Congo's lawless east, some 65,000 suspected cases of measles have been reported across the vast central African country. The health ministry revealed the measles figure when it declared the epidemic on Monday.
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Tuesday that 1,500 deaths from measles had been recorded in the first five months of 2019, the highest since 2012, which was the deadliest measles epidemic of the last decade.