Despite the tremendous stride made over the past two decades in immunisation of infants against the "big six" diseases , measles remains the number one vaccine-preventable killer of children under five and Indian along accounts for 230,000 of the over 8,00,000 deaths from the disease every year. Measles continues to thrive in the cities of Africa and Asia , especially in deprived neighbourhoods and just 20 countries in this region account for 85 per cent of measles deaths of children under five years, says the just-released "The progess of nations,1998" report of UNICEF.