Measles vaccination coverage  less than 50% in Cameroon

The Regional Coordinator of the Expanded Vaccination Program, ENP, Njoh Andreas Ateke, has indicated that the level of coverage of the measles vaccinations throughout the country is insufficient considering it is below 50%.

He explains that due to the increase in the number of measles cases recorded these recent weeks,  there is a need to attain 95% of vaccination coverage in other to achieve immunity.

Health authorities are reported to have launched a response campaign which began on October 5th and  will run till October 9th  2022 .

The campaign involves 25 health districts in eight regions of the country: Adamawa, Centre, Far North, littoral, South West , North West, South and West regions.

For five days, health personnel have been deployed in communities and hospitals in these regions to administer the vaccines.

According to the Ministry of Public Health, “73% of the recently identified positive cases are from children who have not been vaccinated. There have been over 2000 new cases since the start of this year with several deaths.”

Measles according to research is a serious viral infection that affects children. It is caused by a virus that is transmitted from the respiratory tract through the projection of salivary droplets such as cough, sneezing, and saliva itself.

An infected person can infect another between three to five days before the symptoms can be detected and it remains contagious for up to four days later. If measles is not controlled, it may lead to pneumonia, diarrhea, encephalitis and blindness among others.

Health authorities are calling on parents to vaccinate their children as from 6 months to 7 years in other to prevent the disease.