UNITED NATIONS - A report on measles by the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and partners said that despite a 79 percent worldwide decrease in measles deaths between 2000 and 2015, nearly 400 children still die from the disease every day and progress has been uneven, a UN spokesman told reporters here Friday.
"The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan account for half of the unvaccinated infants and 75 percent of measles deaths," Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here.
"Making measles history is not mission impossible," said Robin Nandy, the UNICEF immunization chief. "We have the tools and the knowledge to do it; what we lack is the political will to reach every single child, no matter how far. Without this commitment, children will continue to die from a disease that is easy and cheap to prevent." 
Mass measles vaccination campaigns and a global increase in routine measles vaccination coverage saved an estimated 20.3 million young lives between 2000 and 2015, according to UNICEF, WHO, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  
But progress has been uneven. In 2015, about 20 million infants missed their measles shots and an estimated 134,000 children died from the disease. (Xinhua)