(New York Times) – Problems with getting vaccines to families have left many children unvaccinated and in danger of contracting the virus.

There were more than 311,000 reported cases of measles in Congo last year. Some 6,000 of them ended as Olive’s did: with a child buried in a small coffin days after first running a fever and breaking out in a red rash. This year, cases have been fewer — about 97,000 — but the virus has become more lethal, killing more than 2,100. It’s not clear why.

Globally, there were 20 percent more measles cases in 2023 than in the year before, according to the World Health Organization, for a total of 10.3 million, and more than 107,000 people died. Fifty-seven countries had “large or disruptive” outbreaks, the W.H.O. said, nearly 60 percent more than in 2022. (Read More)