(AFP photo)YANGON - Myanmar health officials have confirmed that a measles outbreak is behind the deaths of more than 30 people, mostly children, in a remote part of the country as authorities rush to treat victims. He said they had confirmed a total of 31 deaths in Lahal region, half of whom were under 15. Last year, with the help of the World Health Organization and the UN, Myanmar embarked on a mass vaccination programme with the aim of eradicating measles and rubella by 2020. This photograph taken on December 24, 2014 shows a Naga ethnic woman bathing her child in Lahal township in the remote Sagaing region located in northern Myanmar. Than Tun Aung, deputy director general of the disease control department at Myanmar's health ministry, said labwork from the worst hit town of Lahal had come back positive for measles.

Source: Bangkok Post August 06, 2016 04:30 UTC