6 yıl önce

Measles outbreak kills as many as 100 children in Indonesia

Local health officials say another eight hundred children are sick. The Indonesian government is blamed for neglecting of the remote island, which was controversially annexed in 1962.

AP

In this June 7, 2006 file photo an Indonesian child cries as a paramedic injects measles vaccine in Banyusoco village near Gunung Kidul, Indonesia.

As many as 100 children have been killed and some 800 children have been sickened by a measles-and-malnutrition outbreak in Indonesia's remote Papua province.

Health crisis hit the island region due to severe lack of medical care and other basic services, health workers say.

"We received information about the outbreak too late so that has led to the high death toll," hospital director Richard Mirino said.

Many Papuans live a semi-nomadic life in hard-to-reach areas that have almost no proper medical care and in the absence of real political stability and investment, it's very hard to maintain life in the region.

TRT World's Denee Savoia has more on the story.