Measles vaccine for infants in nine districts planned on January 6

Health Secretary Dr. Palitha Mahipala on Wednesday said that a special programme has already been planned to give a measles dose to infants between six and nine months in consultation with the World Health Organisation’s office in the South Asian region, and in consultation with the Geneva office. He was speaking to the media at the Health Promotion Bureau.

In 2019, Sri Lanka was certified by the World Health Organisation as a country that has eradicated measles. It was received only by three countries in the region. One of them is Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has the strongest immunization programme and highest coverage (100 percent and 99.5 percent) worldwide. Immunization coverage decreased worldwide with the Covid pandemic. Because of this, there are reports of measles cases all over the world. This is reported in many countries including India and Pakistan. It is reported even in developed countries.

Measles cases have been reported in Sri Lanka recently. Most of the cases are reported especially in a few districts. Those districts are Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Galle, Matara, Kandy, Jaffna, Kurunegala and Ampara.

The new vaccination programme will be implemented only in the nine districts where most measles cases are reported. This programme will run on Saturday January 6, 2024 from 9.00 am to 4.00 pm. These vaccinations are administered from the clinic in Lagam. It is hoped to implement this programme to give measles vaccination to anyone between 09 and 15 months of age, if they have not received a measles vaccine. Once again after two weeks in the third week of January, we hope to implement this kind of programme throughout the province.

The purpose of this is to reduce the reporting of measles cases and bring the measles cases to a minimum level in Sri Lanka by acting according to the instructions issued by the World Health Organisation globally and regionally. Through that programme it will be possible to completely stop reported measles cases within two months.

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