Measles Elimination: Analysis of Control Measures in Zimbabwe from 2000-2005

Measles is a major cause of childhood mortality in developing countries and has been targeted for elimination by WHO. One of the major objectives for WHO-AFRO was to halve the annual number of measles deaths by 2005 and to maintain the interruption of transmission of the disease in a large geographical area. There is need to find out what Zimbabwe has contributed to regional and global efforts to measles elimination by assessing measles control measures through monitoring progress of planned activities against WHO predefined performance Indicators. The measures include routine immunisation coverages, case based surveillance, outbreak management and laboratory quality performance. Data obtained from this study showed that measles deaths were greatly reduced from thousands before the year 2000 to only 12 between 2000 and 2005. Routine immunisation coverages met the WHO 80% target,suspected cases were fully ivestigated and supplimentary immunisations done with high coverages. The country met most of measles elimination targets set by WHO. This book is good for clinicians, medical students, surveillance officers,nurses,nursaries,infection control personnel epidemiologists among others