World Health Body WHO verifies that the Maldives and Sri Lanka have eliminated rubella, making them the first two countries in the WHO South-East Asia Region to achieve measles and rubella elimination ahead of the 2023 target.
The announcement was made after the fifth meeting of the South-East Asia Regional Verification Commission for Measles and Rubella Elimination, held virtually.
The Commission comprises of 11 independent international experts in the fields of epidemiology, virology and public health. A country is verified as having eliminated measles and rubella when there is no evidence of endemic transmission of the measles and rubella viruses for over three years in the presence of a well-performing surveillance system.
Maldives reported the last endemic case of measles in 2009 and of rubella in October 2015, while Sri Lanka reported the last endemic case of measles in May 2016 and of rubella in March 2017.
Coming at a time when the entire world is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, this success is encouraging and demonstrates the importance of joint efforts, Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region said, lauding the Ministries of Health, health workforce, partners, and most importantly the communities, who together contributed to this public health achievement.
The Regional Director commended Member countries’ efforts to deliver life-saving vaccines to children even while battling the pandemic.
In a global survey, more than half of all countries reported moderate-to-severe disruptions, or a total suspension of vaccination services in March and April. Preliminary information from the Region suggests both immunization coverage and surveillance have been impacted. However, countries in the WHO South-East Asia Region have been making concerted efforts to resume immunization and surveillance activities and plug gaps that have arisen due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In recent years, all countries in the Region introduced two doses of measles-containing vaccine and at least one dose of rubella-containing vaccine in their routine immunization program.
First-dose coverage of the measles-containing vaccine is now 88% and the second-dose coverage 76%. Since 2017, nearly 500 million additional children have been vaccinated with measles and rubella containing vaccines.
Surveillance for measles and rubella has been strengthened further.
Member countries of WHO South-East Asia Region had in September last year set 2023 as the target for elimination of measles and rubella, revising the goal of the flagship program that since 2014 had focused on measles elimination and rubella control.
Bhutan, DPR Korea, and Timor-Leste are other countries in the Region that have eliminated measles.
