NEPAL: On the 12th anniversary of the last case of wild polio virus in the South- East Asia Region, the World Health Organisation called on countries, including Nepal, to take urgent and accelerated measures against measles which is on the rise with nearly nine million children having missed vaccination against the killer disease in the past two years.
“The strong political commitment, determination, focused and concerted efforts, and community support, that marked our efforts for polio elimination, are now urgently needed to stop and prevent measles outbreaks and accelerate efforts to eliminate the disease,” said WHO South-East Asia Regional Director Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, in a press release.
Measles and Rubella elimination is a flagship priority programme of WHO South-East Asia Region. Between 2014 and 2021, the region recorded 73 per cent reduction in measles deaths and 64 per cent reduction in measles cases. Five of the 11 countries in the South-East Asia Region – Bhutan, DPR Korea, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste – have eliminated measles, and two countries – Maldives and Sri Lanka – have eliminated rubella as well. Other countries, including Nepal are yet to eliminate them. Countries have been administering two doses of measles vaccines as part of their childhood immunisation programme and some rolling out mass vaccination campaigns.
However, as the pandemic hit, measles vaccination coverage, which had reached an all-time high of 94 per cent coverage for the first dose and 83 per cent coverage for the second dose by 2019, declined to 86 per cent and 78 per cent respectively in 2021, leaving nine million children unvaccinated for measles and around 5.3 million children partially vaccinated against this highly infectious.
- THE HIMALAYAN TIMES
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