ETHIOPIA – The Ethiopian Government has stepped up its measles vaccination campaign with reinforcement from the World Health Organization (WHO) to get people vaccinated amid the measles outbreak in 12 districts in three regions.

The country has increased efforts towards measles vaccination for children combined with mass immunization campaigns as key public health strategies to reduce measles deaths.

Measles is a viral infection spread through the air by respiratory droplets produced from coughing and sneezing by those with the infection.

The acute viral respiratory illness is characterized by a very high fever, runny nose, cough, red and watery eyes, small white spots inside the cheeks and a spreading rash all over the body.

The most serious complications include blindness, encephalitis, severe diarrhea and related dehydration, ear infections or severe respiratory infections such as pneumonia and in extreme cases, death.

Measles can, however, be prevented with measles-containing vaccine which is primarily administered as the combination measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Ethiopia launched the immunization drive to stop the spread of a measles outbreak reported from seven districts of SNNP, one district of Guji Zone in Oromia and four districts of Somali putting more than 650,000 children at risk.

The measles vaccination campaign was conducted from February to March 2022 in SNNP, Somali and Oromia regions targeting more than half a million children aged between 6 months to 10 years.

Following the risk assessment and the detailed investigation report, the national Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) and the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) Technical Working Group recommended conducting a non-selective vaccination campaign.

The campaign was coordinated by the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI), regional public health emergency management (PHEM) teams along with zonal and district health offices in collaboration with partners such as WHO and UNICEF.

WHO is supporting the country in the measles outbreak response and vaccination campaign including offering technical support at national and regional level.

The health organization is also supporting the investigation of the outbreak and planning of response actions, financial support for the operational cost and deployment of experts to coordinate and monitor the vaccination campaign.

Additionally, WHO supported district-level training of vaccinators and team supervisors, ensured optimized cold-chain system and logistics are in place as well as guided vaccinators to ensure COVID-19 prevention measures were observed during the campaign.

Liked this article? Sign up to receive our regular email newsletters, focused on Africa and World’s healthcare industry, directly into your inbox. SUBSCRIBE HERE