Union Minister for Health and Sports, Myint Htwe on Tuesday said health authorities in Myanmar are planning to conduct vaccination for over four million babies.
Htwe said the vaccination against measles was for babies aged between nine and 18 months, which would be done in October.
The minister stressed that measles is highly contagious and its outbreak mostly occurs in regions with highest children population, therefore, immunization is needed to cover about 95 per cent of Myanmar’s children.
He added that efforts are underway to cooperate with local ethnic organisations for the nationwide vaccination programme in Rakhine and Kachin states while preparations to eradicate measles from the country are also being carried out.
In 2018, the nationwide vaccination against measles covered about 80 per cent of the population of children aged nine to 18 months.
About 1,276 laboratory-confirmed cases of measles, fatal infectious disease caused by the measles virus were reported in 2018.
The measles virus is spread through direct contact with infectious droplets or by airborne spread through cough and sneeze of the infected people.
