More than 5,000 measles deaths in DR Congo this year: WHO

In September the DR Congo launched an emergency vaccination campaign to counter the outbreak of measles

Measles has killed more than 5,000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo since January -- more than double the toll in the country's Ebola epidemic -- the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

"The DRC (measles) outbreak is the largest outbreak worldwide. It is one of the largest that we have seen," Kate O'Brien, director of the WHO's immunisation department, told reporters in Geneva.