Turkey's response to measles outbreak questioned

Some believe the Turkish government is downplaying a measles outbreak compounded by the arrival of Syrian refugees despite warnings by World Health Organization and Turkish medical experts.
A medic examines a Kurdish Syrian refugee child inside a temporary medical facility for children on the Turkish-Syrian border near the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province, in this September 24, 2014 file photo. Reuters photographers have chronicled Kurdish refugee crises over the years. In 1991 Srdjan Zivulovic documented refugees in Cukurca who had escaped a military operation by Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq aimed at "Arabising" Kurdish areas in the north. Hundreds of thousands fled int
A medic examines a Kurdish Syrian refugee child inside a temporary medical facility for children on the Turkish-Syrian border near the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province, Sept. 24, 2014 - REUTERS/Murad Sezer
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Tulay Cetingulec
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Turkey has recently faced a number of challenges, including terrorism and unemployment, after being swamped by refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war. Now another problem has emerged in the form of measles. The Turkish Medical Association (TTB) claims that the refugees are contributing to an increase in measles cases in the country.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned last year of measles, tuberculosis and contagious skin diseases spreading in Syrian refugee camps in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. Despite WHO's warning, the Turkish government's response appears lymphatic. During a budget debate in parliament Nov. 20, Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu claimed that the situation was “under control.”

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