“With large population movements and the breakdown of regular health services in Syria, additional precautions are required to ensure that children are protected against killer diseases like measles no matter where they are,” said Mahendra Sheth, UNICEF Regional Health Advisor. “Immunization is one of the most cost-effective tools we have available.”

In addition to the more than 70,000 people killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011, more than 1.4 million people have taken refuge in neighbouring countries. Currently, up to 8,000 Syrians are fleeing the country daily, UNICEF said in a news release.

There are also some 4.25 million people displaced within Syria – nearly half of them children. Many live in cramped and unsanitary conditions where disease can easily spread, the agency noted.

According to UNICEF, about 332 cases of measles have been reported since December 2012 in the Domiz refugee camp in Iraq; 300 reported in Lebanon since January; 133 registered cases in Syria; and 5 cases have been identified among Syrian refugees in the densely populated Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan.

There have been some 3,000 to 4,000 reported measles cases in Turkey over the past year, including 300 among Syrian refugees.

In all the countries, UNICEF, working with the Ministries of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners, has increased vaccination campaigns to help ensure that all children are protected against disease.

The mass vaccination campaigns coincide with World Immunization Week, which promotes global immunization as one of the most effective tools to keep children safe from deadly disease.

Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed a generous contribution of around $43 million from the United Kingdom that will help provide much-needed food assistance to tens of thousands of Syrians both inside and outside their country. The agency will also use the funds to issue food vouchers to thousands of Syrian refugees who are either sheltering in camps in Turkey or as urban refugees in Lebanon.

“Ever since we launched our emergency operation in Syria and the region last year, the UK has been both timely and effective in responding,” said WFP Emergency Coordinator for the Syria crisis Muhannad Hadi.

“The UK has also given us the freedom to maximize our use of resources, according to our assessment of the situation. For example, we provide food vouchers instead of direct food assistance in areas where markets are still functional. This means WFP is supporting both Syrian refugees and host communities, who are suffering increased pressure in these difficult times.”

The UK is also helping WFP scale up its logistics capacity by providing armoured vehicles and personal protective equipment to assist field monitors inside Syria move around in dangerous areas. The agency must raise $19 million each week to provide food assistance to 2.5 million hungry people inside Syria and more than one million refugees in neighbouring countries.

Between 2000 and 2011, measles deaths dropped from 542,000 to 158,000 globally, representing a 71 per cent decrease. New cases also dropped during the same period by 58 per cent, according to new data released by the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

However, the agency warned that despite global progress, some populations remain unprotected, with an estimated 20 million children lacking vaccinations. More than half of them are concentrated in five countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, India, Nigeria and Pakistan. India has the largest number of unvaccinated children – 6.7 million – followed by Nigeria and Ethiopia with 1.7 million and 1 million, respectively.

In 2011, outbreaks of the disease were reported in all five countries, as well as France, Italy and Spain. Most of these countries are in WHO regions which have committed to eliminate measles by 2015 or 2020.

Measles is a highly infectious disease that occurs through the spread of nasal and oral fluids and causes complications and deaths, even in previously healthy individuals. It is one of the leading causes of death among young children even though a safe vaccine is available.

“The measles outbreaks pose a serious challenge to the regional elimination efforts and signal where national health systems and routine immunization programmes need strengthening,” WHO stated in a news release. “Resuming progress in reducing measles cases and deaths means strengthening health systems so that they can provide effective immunization services and laboratory-supported surveillance for vaccine-preventable diseases to all children.”

The new data, published in WHO’s Weekly Epidemiological Record, shows overall progress in reducing deaths is linked largely to increased vaccination coverage. Two doses of measles vaccine are recommended by WHO since about 15 per cent of vaccinated children fail to develop immunity from the first dose.

The UN health agency noted that the outbreaks indicate the need to ensure that parents are fully aware of the benefits of immunization and the risks associated with not vaccinating children.

Since 2000, with support from the Measles & Rubella Initiative, more than one billion children have been reached through mass vaccination campaigns ? about 225 million of them in 2011.

Launched in 2001, the Measles & Rubella Initiative is a partnership — led by the American Red Cross, the UN Foundation, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and WHO — committed to reducing measles deaths worldwide.

In April, the partners of the Initiative introduced a new global plan to jointly tackle measles and rubella using the same strategy and a combined vaccine. The new Measles & Rubella Initiative aims to reduce measles deaths worldwide by 95 per cent between by 2015 and to eliminate measles and rubella in at least five of six WHO regions by 2020.