“In the United States, you really don’t see children dying in front of you. But in Uganda we have sick children come in and die right in front of us and the mother. It is very real.” These words from Dr. Robert Perry, a pediatrician and epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), illustrate the stark differences that still divide the Western world from developing, third-world nations.
Although these struggling countries constantly battle a myriad of diseases, from HIV to malaria to cholera, it is the ailment which sounds the least frightening that causes the most problems: measles. Once an international disease, measles has been virtually eliminated from the United States and the industrialized world through simple and inexpensive vaccinations. It remains in pandemic proportions, however, in poorer countries that lack resources to vaccinate citizens on a large scale.
Africa is undeniably the center of the measles crisis. It is there that 450,000 children die each year from this disease which can be prevented with a vaccination that costs less than one American dollar. For those of you scoring at home, that’s 1,200 children A DAY dying from measles.
However, unlike many global issues which seem so widespread as to be hopeless, the health crisis caused by rampant measles is not without a powerful adversary, which has come to be known as the Measles Initiative. Organized primarily by the American Red Cross and carried out in conjunction with a myriad of other international aid groups (including UNICEF, CDC and the UN Foundation), the Measles Initiative seeks to rid the African continent of measles deaths by 2005.
Through an extensive campaign focused on awareness and medical assistance, the Initiative has already vaccinated more than 20 million children in Africa — a measure that is estimated to have prevented over 140,000 child deaths. Some of the local campaigns reported vaccination rates above 100 percent, as not only all children in targeted areas were vaccinated but others who arrived from surrounding areas were inoculated as well.
Despite the initiative’s international scope, this week a group of students is bringing it right here to LSU, making our beloved campus the first in the nation to coordinate fundraising efforts for this project. In conjunction with the local and national Red Cross chapters, an LSU Red Cross steering committee has organized a “Drive-for-Five,” whereby each participating member pledges to raise $5 toward the campus-wide goal of $5,000. This money will go directly to the Red Cross’ fund to provide 15 percent of the initiative’s estimated $200 million price tag.
The committee will be speaking to various campus organizations in the coming days and is sponsoring a kickoff at 3 p.m. today in the Union Collonnade Room that will feature Dr. Mark Grabowsky. In addition to organizing support for LSU’s assistance with the world-wide initiative, the meeting will also serve as a first step in organizing a full-time Red Cross student organization on campus.
The words of Dr. Perry should give each of us pause — “In the United States, you really don’t see children dying in front of you.” For only a couple of bucks (i.e. a couple of beers, a couple of Diet Cokes) you can make a big step toward the hope that no one, anywhere, will have to watch a child die of a highly preventable condition.
The life-saving vaccines cost approximately one dollar each — by attending the meeting or making a contribution, you can know exactly how many children’s lives you saved today.