The UN Children's Fund ( UNICEF) and partners are stepping up vaccination campaigns in Syria, and neighboring Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey, amid measles outbreaks in the region, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters here Tuesday.

"In Turkey alone, there have been some 3,000 to 4,000 measles cases reported across the country, including 300 among Syrian refugees," Nesirky said at a daily news briefing here.

"UNICEF has said that nearly half of the displaced and refugee populations are children, the vast majority of whom are now living in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions where diseases could spread rapidly," he said.

In Syria, some 550,000 children have been vaccinated recently by teams of the Syrian Ministry of Health as part of a national campaign that is targeting 2.5 million children with the support of UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF officials said.

In Lebanon, 462,000 Syrian and Lebanese children have been vaccinated this year alone, 60,000 refugees in the Za'atari camp has been immunized against measles and a national vaccination campaign is expected shortly, the officials said. Endi

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