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Lack of political will hampers the "make measles history" efforts of the United Nations Children's Fund. Despite the global efforts to put an end to deaths caused by measles through continuous awareness and vaccination initiatives, global health experts report that every day nearly 400 children still die from measles.

Lack of Political commitment- Major cause

The United Nations Children's Fund and World Health Organization have expressed in their reports on the disease that the problem is not with lack of tools or knowledge of the disease, but the lack of political will in getting every child vaccinated against the highly infectious and deathly disease.

"Without this commitment, children will continue to die from a disease that is easy and cheap to prevent," said Robin Nandy, UNICEF's head of immunization.

75% of measles death from Asia and Africa

The major countries that suffer 75% of measles death are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan. Though mass measles vaccination campaign initiatives have reportedly saved 20.3 million young lives between 2000 and 2015, even today majority of the children in these countries miss their measles shots, the number of which is estimated around 20 million babies out of which 134,000 children lay in the graves.

Measles is a child-killer that can be prevented easily

Measles is a communicative disease and it spreads rapidly through direct contact with infected children. It is a highly contagious virus and one of the biggest child-killers worldwide. However, the disease can be averted with two doses vaccine that is globally available and inexpensive.

The chief executive of GAVI, Mr. Seth Berkley, insisted that governments should recognize the threat of "one of the world's most deadly vaccine-preventable childhood killers" and act to prevent it from affecting the children. "We need strong commitments from countries and partners to boost routine immunization coverage and to strengthen surveillance systems" he expressed.

It is only with a committed political arrangement to keep the disease away, will our children be safe-guarded from the impending threat of measles deaths.