The U.N. children's agency said Friday it will send some 8,000 medical workers into Iraq to immunize children across the war-torn country to avert a measles outbreak. The vaccination campaign by UNICEF is due to start Sunday and will last two weeks, with the aim to bring the measles, mumps and rubella combined vaccine (MMR) to as many of the 3.9 million Iraqi children aged between one and five years old, The Associated Press quoted the U.N. agency as saying in a statement. Measles can be deadly to children, but easily prevented by immunization. Roger Wright, UNICEF special representative, said that a million Iraqi children currently have no protection against measles as a result of insecurity and plummeting immunization rates. «This vaccine will certainly save many young lives,» Wright said in the statement, made available to The Associated Press.
