KATHMANDU, JANUARY 13On the 12th anniversary of the last case of wild polio virus in the South- East Asia Region, the World Health Organisation today contacted nations, including Nepal, to take urgent and sped up procedures against measles which is on the increase with nearly 9 million children having missed out on vaccination against the killer illness in the previous two years. The strong political commitment, decision, focused and concerted efforts, and community support, that marked our efforts for polio removal, are now urgently required to stop and prevent measles break outs and speed up efforts to get rid of the disease, said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, local director, WHO South- East Asia in a press release. Beijing threatens response to undesirable infection procedures Time to administer vaccine versus polio altered The strong political commitment, determination, focused and collective efforts, and neighborhood support, that marked our efforts for polio elimination, are now urgently needed to stop and avoid measles break outs and accelerate efforts to eliminate the disease, said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, local director, WHO South- East Asia in a press release. Measles and rubella removal is a flagship top priority programme of WHO South-East Asia Region.

Between 2014 and 2021, the area recorded 73 percent reduction in measles deaths and 64 per cent decrease in measles cases.

5 of the 11 countries in the South-East Asia Region-- Bhutan, DPR Korea, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste-- have gotten rid of measles, and 2 countries-- Maldives and Sri Lanka-- have actually gotten rid of rubella.

Other countries, including Nepal are yet to remove them.

Nations have been administering 2 doses of measles vaccines as part of their youth immunisation program and some presenting mass vaccination campaigns.However, as the pandemic hit, measles vaccination protection, which had reached an all-time high of 94 per cent coverage for the very first dose and 83 per cent coverage for the second dose by 2019, decreased to 86 per cent and 78 per cent respectively in 2021, leaving 9 million kids unvaccinated for measles and around 5.3 million children partly vaccinated against this highly infectious.Implementation of crucial removal techniques at accelerated rate is the requirement of the hour, she stated.

We require to urgently close immunity gaps with customized approaches for the greatest impact, such as through catch-up campaigns, and enhancing regular immunisation with much better microplanning, the local director said.The local director commended nations in the area for their continued efforts against polio.

The region reported its last case of wild poliovirus from Howrah in West Bengal, India, 12 years earlier, and sustains its polio-free status.

In 2022, the general surveillance indicators for polio in the region were kept above globally recommended standards.

More than 63,000 stool specimens were tested in the polio laboratories of this 2022 to discover any poliovirus.

More than 2200 sewage samples were checked for polioviruses in the area as a part of ecological security that is being conducted through 91 websites in 6 countries of the region.To preserve population immunity versus polioviruses all nations in the region are currently providing bivalent oral polio vaccine in addition to inactivated polio vaccine in their national immunisation programmes.Mass vaccination projects against polio were performed in picked nations during 2021 and 2022.

A version of this post appears in the print on January 14, 2023, of The Himalayan Times .

This post very first appeared/also appeared in https://thehimalayantimes.com