Measles cases steadily spreading beyond Pom

By MATTHEW VARI

Wednesday, April 9, 2014 (Midweek Chronicle, PNG)

CONFIRMED measles have risen steadily over the past week with Port Moresby having 148 laboratory confirmed cases, one confirmed case in Rabaul East New Britain Province, another in Wabag Enga, and two confirmed cases in the Southern Highlands.

NCD Director for Public Health, Dr Niko Wuatai informed Midweek Chronicles that the vaccination campaign has been extended due to the number of new cases that have been confirmed regularly.    

“We have extended the campaign for another month since the infections are still not under control,” Dr Wuatai said.

“We will have three mop-up teams to conduct cleanup vaccinations for those children and teenagers we may have missed.”

“Since the Friday last week, we have vaccinated over a 156,000 individuals within said age groups.”

He urged those parents that have not taken their children to health clinics to be vaccinated, to make it their business to see that they get the protection from the contagious disease.

He added that more than 60 per cent of cases were of children below five years of age.

“We are now looking at house to house vaccinations and with the movement of teams into settlements, we have seen a general lack of responsibility of some parents who are not taking the seriousness of the outbreak that is currently happening.”

On the national front- Disease Surveillance and Emergency Program Officer with the Health Department, Barry Ropa said the virus was now active in other part of the country other than NCD and Western, which he said the department warned would occur in an outbreak situation.

“The department has already informed the various provinces that have confirmed cases to be alert and initiate the same strategies that have been initiated in Port Moresby,” Ropa Said.

“We have asked all health facilities in the country to be on alert for cases that meet the criteria like running nose, red eyes, and sneezing.”

“Health facilities have been advised to report to their provincial health authorities who will arrange for samples to be taken from suspected cases and sent to Port Moresby for verification.”

He said other provinces like Morobe, Eastern Highland, and Madang have all sent samples of suspected cases, which have all come back negative.

The vaccination exercises that are now occurring in confirmed affected province other than NCD have targeted the age range of children from 6 years to 15 years of age.

When asked about the severity of an outbreak in rural areas compared to NCD and other urban center- he said that both instances were both huge risk areas.

“Yes and no, because the risk in urban centers is one of congestion and close proximity and for the rural areas is thee lack of proper access to health services such as immunization at early childhood.”