Ceará receives WHO certification for the eradication of measles.
The WHO commission, which also includes technicians from the Ministry and the Health Secretariat, certified the "sustainability of interrupting the chain of measles transmission" yesterday, during a meeting with Governor Camilo Santana (PT) and local health authorities.
Ceará247 - Ceará officially received yesterday the WHO certification for “sustainability in interrupting the chain of measles transmission.” “We can only congratulate Ceará for achieving this important goal. May it serve as an example for other states and countries in Latin America,” said Merceline Dalh-Regis, president of the Measles Sustainability Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO/PAHO), in a meeting with Governor Camilo Santana. This July, the state completed one year without any registered cases of the disease.
The WHO commission, which also includes technicians from the Ministry and the Health Secretariat, certified the "sustainability of interrupting the chain of measles transmission." "This was a team effort, with a very strong partnership, especially with the municipalities. Thanks to the joint effort, we managed to achieve this important goal. Even so, surveillance work must be continuous," said Governor Camilo Santana.
Last September, during an event in Brasília, the Ministry of Health had already announced the eradication of measles in Ceará. However, to obtain the certificate of sustainability for the interruption of the disease, the WHO takes into account the period of one year since the last case, registered in the state on July 6, 2015.
“If this important integrated movement in Ceará hadn’t existed, we certainly wouldn’t be having this success in combating measles today. For me, it was a personal challenge to interrupt this cycle, and we can only thank the Government of Ceará for their work,” stated Carla Domingues, coordinator of the National Immunization Program of the Ministry of Health.
The State Secretary of Health, Henrique Javi, also mentioned the importance of public involvement in vaccination against the disease. “This is a very special moment for Ceará. We are completing one year since we eliminated the chain of measles transmission. This was also possible thanks to the fundamental involvement of the population and the municipalities.”
Event
This Wednesday morning in Fortaleza, representatives from WHO/PAHO and the Ministry of Health participated in a meeting with local and national health authorities to assess the measles and rubella situation in Brazil. The meeting confirmed the sustainability of the measles outbreak in the state.
In addition to the members of the CIE delegation, which also includes the head of the PAHO-WDC Immunization Unit, Cuauhtemoc Ruiz Matus, and the PAHO regional consultants for measles in Washington, Desiree Pastor and Pamela Bravo, the meeting is attended by the president of the National Committee for the Elimination of Measles and Rubella (CNE), Rosane Will, the general coordinator of the National Immunization Program of the Ministry of Health (CGPNI/MS), Carla Domingues, the general coordinator of Transmissible Diseases (CGDT/MS), Sérgio Nishioka, and the representative of the Family, Gender and Life Course Unit of the PAHO vaccine-preventable diseases area, Samia Samad, who participated in and collaborated to interrupt the measles epidemic in Ceará.
Source: Press Office of the Government of Ceará