Cuba has been measles free for 11 years
Campaign News | Saturday, 29 January 2005
No related deaths in two decades
Havana, Jan 28 - Cuba has registered no measles cases in eleven years and no related deaths in the last two decades, according to Miguel Galindo, head of the Cuban Public Health Ministry?s National Vaccination Program.
"This achievement has been the result of increased measles vaccination campaigns after the Triumph of the Revolution," the official told Cuba's Granma daily newspaper.
He added that Cuba was one of the first countries to successfully implement traditional strategies to fight the disease, namely injections (children between 1 and 14 years old), maintenance (routine immunization) and follow-up (for susceptible groups).
A campaign effectively using a triple viral vaccine -to also fight German measles and mumps- began in 1986, with 98 percent of the population immunized from 1988 to present.
Though no cases of measles and other afflictions such as poliomyelitis, diphtheria, whooping cough, mumps, or German measles have been reported in Cuba for a long time, health authorities maintain a constant epidemiological alert to detect any possible reappearance, Galindo asserted.
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