Adamawa State Health Commissioner Felix Tangwami said the measles outbreak had mostly affected two local government areas where 42 deaths were recorded out of nearly 200 suspected cases.

At least 42 people, mostly children, have died following an outbreak of measles in a little more than a week in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Adamawa, the state’s health commissioner said on Friday.

Felix Tangwami said the measles outbreak had mostly affected two local government areas where nearly 200 suspected cases were identified.

“The death toll stands at 42 out of 131 and 177 affected persons in Mubi and Gombi,” the commissioner said at a news conference in the state’s capital of Yola.

Tangwami said almost all local governments in the state have been on red alert to ensure the disease does not spread to other areas. He added that the government has activated machinery for the management and control of the airborne disease.

“Measles vaccines have been released to those areas and our field teams are containing the situation,” he told reporters.

Measles is a highly contagious, airborne virus that mostly affects children below the age of five. It can be prevented by two doses of vaccine. Its early symptoms include high fever, cough, and runny nose. It also often causes rashes and bumps all over the body of the patient.

More than 50 million measles deaths have been averted through vaccinations since 2000, according to the World Health Organisation.

Measles outbreaks frequently occur in Nigeria, particularly in the northern region with severe heat and harsh weather conditions.

The Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) medical charity, also known as Doctors Without Borders, announced in January 591 new cases in an outbreak in Borno State in the northeast region.

Cases had risen to 9,000 as of early February, according to MSF.

Widespread insecurity in many northern Nigerian states is often blamed for disruptions in vaccination campaigns, leaving children particularly vulnerable.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also disrupted the health system and vaccination programmes in parts of the country, according to MSF.

The medical charity said earlier this year that the inability of public health actors in Nigeria “to achieve the 95% vaccination rate required to suppress measles” led to an alarming rise in the number of people affected by the virus last year.

MSF said it treated 3,965 patients between October and December.

“This is notably due to the difficulties for health workers in accessing rural communities surrounding Maiduguri,” Jombo Tochukwu-Okoli, MSF medical activity manager at the Gwange Pediatric Hospital in the capital of the northeastern state of Borno, said in a statement in February.

The virus can spread quickly among unvaccinated children. “One infected child can spread the virus to between nine and 12 other unvaccinated children,” Tochukwu-Okoli said.