And health care workers in the public and private sectors are being alerted to the possibility of measles “importation.”
Chief Medical Officer Dr Merciline Dahl-Regis said vaccinations are offered to local citizens against measles. The last case was imported to The Bahamas from a Canadian traveller sometime between 1997 and 1998.
When she spoke with the Nassau Guardian, Dr Dahl-Regis said she was not in a position to offer any further information on what new strategies would be implemented to combat measles importation, given a number of recent outbreaks.
The Pan American Health Organisation has recommended that every country in the region advise its residents to get immunised, especially those travelling to Germany for the World Cup, which starts on June 9.
Dr Yitades Gebre, advisor on disease prevention and control at the local PAHO/ WHO office said: “Sport fans from the Bahamas planning to attend World Cup football matches in Germany may need to contact their healthcare providers two weeks before their travel dates about immunisation needs for measles.”
Measles sufferers often experience a high fever, a cough and sore eyes before the tell-tale rash breaks out.
International reports indicate that recent measles outbreaks have been reported in several European countries, including Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, Sweden and the Ukraine. Since January 2006, the German region of North Rhine-Westphalia has reported 1,106 cases – the highest number of cases since 2001.
Three cities located in the region of North Rhine-Westphalia (Cologne, Dortmund, and Gelsenkirchen) will be hosting soccer games in the 2006 World Cup.
Since the goal to eliminate measles was adopted in September 1994, cases of measles have decreased in the Americas by more than 99 per cent, according to PAHO.
A recent outbreak in Venezuela, the first in four years, which resulted in 49 confirmed cases, began with a case imported from Spain. Mexico has reported 22 confirmed cases, Canada seven and the United States 13. All other countries have no confirmed cases of measles.
Transmission of the D6 measles virus genotype, which began in 1995 and caused large outbreaks in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, was interrupted in September 2001.
According to the World Health Organisation, since 2004 an estimated 452,000 people worldwide have died from measles.
By: JIMENITA SWAIN, The Nassau Guardian
