Measles cases still on the rise

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, April 20, 2014 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)

THE measles outbreak that begun in the nation’s capital, has now slowly affecting other provincial centres.

Figures in Port Moresby now stand at 221 confirmed; however, despite this figure health authorities in the city remain optimistic in the decline of the virus’s intensity in the weeks ahead.

Director for Public Health in the National Capital District, Dr Niko Wuatai said that with the number of vaccinated individuals in the city, which now stands at 260,000, it is likely that the number will drop.

“With the number of vaccinations that have already taken place, we expect that the number of daily cases will drop in the coming weeks,” Dr Wuatai said.

“We currently have three teams dispatched to the three electorates here in the National Capital District to continue the vaccination exercise.”

In other centres in the country, Enga has so far had only one confirmed case, but despite this health authorities have continued immunisation in the surrounding areas where the confirmed case was from.

East New Britain has so far recorded 10 confirmed cases and increasing samples have been sent to Port Moresby for further testing.

Southern Highlands has confirmed 30 cases and rising, with no confirmed cases coming from Hela Province as yet.

According to Disease Surveillance Officer of the Department of Health Barry Ropa, said that a confirmed case has also been discovered from samples sent to Australia from the Lihir Gold Mine area in the New Ireland Province.

“We have yet to confirm if the case is in Australia or still in New Ireland province.”

He added that in terms of the cases in the Central Province, it was difficult to determine how many exactly there are.

Because of the easy access to Port Moresby, he added that those affected could have been confirmed in health facilities in the city, thus could be added to the city’s tally.

The mining township of Tabubil in the Western Province has a confirmed case also, apart from East Sepik, Madang, Bougainville, who have all have suspected that have not been tested and confirmed.

“All the affected areas have undertaken vaccination exercises that are ongoing and the widespread occurrence of the virus can be attributed as a result of the travelling that occurs between Port Moresby to the rest of the country,” Ropa said.