Measles outbreak still baffles city health authorities

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, June 8, 2014 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)

DIRECTOR for Public Health in NCD Dr Niko Wuatai, revealed that the measles outbreak in the capital city continues to baffle local health authorities- considering its persistence in the highest confirmed case areas in the country.

He said that the measles virus was still widespread- saying that in terms of their response to control, they are baffled in terms of how long it has persisted in NCD and now in the country.

“We thought we were going to be able to tackle this problem in April, May, and now it going into June,” Dr Wuatai said.

“This outbreak is very different to the previous outbreak we had in the city, which was in 2006 and lasted for three to four weeks.”

“This is very different for several reasons, one of the main one is the movement of people in and out of the city- be sea, by road, and by air, making it extremely difficult for us to control the outbreak.”

Dr Wuatai stated that the number of cases that have surfaced from the Central Province and the others provinces around the country is also a factor to these movements.

“We have vaccinated through a campaign which started on February 14, 190,000 people, and there’s still cases popping up and we do not know why it is still on,” he said.

He, however, was still pleased with the work of his teams in terms of the authorities’ response, referencing to the experiences of other counties that have had outbreaks with large number of deaths.

“This has not been the case with only nine unfortunate deaths registered- most of which were of children under two years of age, some of which succumb to the complications associated with the infection and nutritional weaknesses,” Wuatai said.

“So far the total number of measles cases in NCD as of a week ago is 665, but that number will go up as we update our records.”

“Our outreach campaign where our teams will go out to conduct vaccinations will end next week, but vaccinations in urban clinics will continue.”

The director added that from epidemic studies and records from other countries, they knew that it should not have stayed long.

He added that despite the persistence of the disease, they had learnt valuable lessons to better prepare them for future outbreaks in the city.

“We are learning a great deal because the data and experience we are getting in terms of our readiness, we have to be prepared and get ready for response appropriately,” Dr Wuatai added.

“I think we need to improve our routine immunization program, measles is a vaccine preventable disease, there is a vaccine there to prevent you to get it, and because of the low coverage the number of non-vaccinated children have gone up- that is the reason why the virus has persisted.”

“Health teams need to go out to communities and maintain that contact with the people.”

Since its first confirmed cases in Port Moresby, the measles outbreak has spread to 20 provinces so far, with only two other provinces that the disease has not affected which are Oro and Milne Bay.