Bangladesh is committed to eliminate measles and control rubella and congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) by 2020. Bangladesh has made significant progress with measles elimination in recent years, however, the number of measles cases has increased over the last few years due to low immunization coverage and influx of migrants from Myanmar in Cox’s Bazar.
In response to outbreak of measles in Sylhet Division and Cox’s Bazar District, more than 1.5 million children aged between 9 months to below 5 years have been vaccinated in a campaign conducted from 29 April to 23 May, 2017. The campaign was extended by 2 weeks than it was originally planned, for improving the vaccination coverage.
The campaign was conducted by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare through the Expanded Programme for Immunization (EPI) and Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), with support from World Health Organization (WHO), Country Office for Bangladesh and UNICEF.
Immunization campaign was preceded by trainings aimed to provide all the staff involved in campaign proper skills and knowledge to conduct their activities in a unified and consequent manner.
For better mobilizing the population, meetings were held with community members- local leaders, teachers, religious leaders, and community social mobilization activities have been conducted: miking from the mosques, door to door visits, banners displaying.
The vaccination activities have been followed by monitoring missions to assess the coverage of the immunization campaign. The final results indicate a vaccinations’ coverage of 98.7 percent in Syhlet and 94.5 percent in Cox’s Bazar.
WHO remains committed in supporting the government to control and eradicate preventable diseases, emphasizing that measles elimination is one of organization’s flagship programs.