Seychelles on track to get measles-free status |18 April 2018

Since the introduction of the measles vaccine in 1967 and the subsequent Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine (MMR) in the Seychelles, the public health authority has not recorded any confirmed measles cases for over 20 years.

Even so, Seychelles has yet to achieve World Health Organisation measles elimination status.

To remediate such the Ministry of Health and World Health Organisation (WHO) are organising a two-day workshop to familiarise the National Verification for Measles Elimination Committee and various other health professionals with strategies being implemented internationally for the total eradication of the virus.

Measles and rubella are viral infections of the respiratory system that can spread through contact with infected mucus and saliva. These are extremely contagious diseases which have no cure and can easily lead to death or other serious complications such as deafness.

The workshop, which is being hosted at the Savoy Resort & Spa, started yesterday and is expected to conclude late this afternoon.

According to the opening remarks of WHO liaison officer, Dr Teniin Gakuruh, most African countries are gearing up to fulfill the WHO global strategic plan for elimination of measles and rubella by 2020.

A medium-term review of this strategy revealed that Seychelles is one of the nine countries on the African continent that are nearer to completely eliminating the life-threatening diseases, she continued.

“We are very happy that Seychelles responded to the Afro regional guidance to set up the National Committee for Measles Elimination [established September 2017] which would then work with the regional committee.”

Dr Gakuruh stated that the country’s next step is to collect evidence-based information and documentation that will support and verify that eradication of measles and rubella has rightly been achieved.

“Seychelles is one of the main front-line countries in this movement so the main purpose of this process is to have evidence so that at least, at a global level, the Seychelles is certified by next year,” Dr Gakuruh concluded.

In his remarks the Minister for Health, Jean-Paul Adam, also relayed that Seychelles is “at the cusp of being able to show through evidence that measles have been eradicated in our country”.

“It is important that we continue to document all of our processes and be able to show the evidence of not only what we have done but also where we have gaps.”

He gave much credit to the country’s staunch and wide immunisation programme coverage for the prevention of diseases which now starts at any Seychellois citizen’s infancy.

“We can be very proud of what we have achieved with our systematic immunisation programme and we look forward to documenting these achievements, and sharing it with our African colleagues and the wider WHO family,” Minister Adam wrapped up.