KATHMANDU, JANUARY 13
On the 12th anniversary of the last case of wild polio virus in the South- East Asia Region, the World Health Organisation today 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 Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director, WHO South- East Asia 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.
Implementation of key elimination strategies at accelerated pace is the need of the hour, she said. "We need to urgently close immunity gaps with tailored approaches for the highest impact, such as through catch-up campaigns, and strengthening routine immunisation with better microplanning," the regional director said.
The regional director commended countries in the region for their continued efforts against polio. The region reported its last case of wild poliovirus from Howrah in West Bengal, India, 12 years ago, and sustains its polio-free status. In 2022, the overall surveillance indicators for polio in the region were maintained above globally recommended standards. More than 63,000 stool specimens were tested in the polio laboratories of this 2022 to detect any poliovirus. More than 2200 sewage samples were tested for polioviruses in the region as a part of environmental surveillance that is being conducted through 91 sites in six countries of the region.
To maintain population immunity against polioviruses all countries in the region are currently providing bivalent oral polio vaccine along with inactivated polio vaccine in their national immunisation programmes.
Mass vaccination campaigns against polio were conducted in selected countries during 2021 and 2022.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 14, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
