Rubella cases decline in TZ: report

Dar es Salaam. Cases of children with rubella, a disease that can cause blindness at birth, have declined sharply in Tanzania over a period of one year, raising fresh hopes of eliminating the viral infection in the coming years.

However, stakeholders are still facing a herculean task of ensuring that vaccines against the two diseases reach every child in the country’s most vulnerable communities.

Data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) show that from 2014 to 2015, rubella cases fell from 529 to 45.

The statistics reveal that apart from rubella, cases of measles, another viral disease in children, have also declined by more than half-from 88 to 30-over the same period.

WHO spokesperson on Immunisation and Vaccines Development in Tanzania Christopher Kamugisha told The Citizen yesterday the decline in the cases is attributed to the ongoing large-scale campaigns to immunise children across the country with the measles‑rubella (MR) vaccine.

Mr Kamugisha said that the introduction of the MR vaccine, coupled with the ‘reach-every-child’ campaign for the rural areas, has begun paying off.

“We have provided the government (of Tanzania) with the required technical support in ensuring that children in rural communities can access the MR vaccines more easily,’’ said Mr Kamugisha.

“We are likely to see more declines in such cases in the coming years, as the strategies to provide the vaccines continue to be sustained,’’ he added.

About two years ago, Tanzania embarked on a major campaign to protect 21 million children in the country against measles and rubella. It is supported by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

The WHO expert on vaccines management admitted that a lot is still desired in reaching children in the poorest and most marginalised communities—not only for Tanzania, but in most other developing countries across the world.

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Rubella, also known as German measles, has already been eliminated in the Americas—but not in the wider part of the developing world, according to last year’s report from the Pan-American Health Organization of the WHO.

Each year, more than 100,000 children particularly in developing countries suffer from Congenital Rubella Syndrome (CRS)—a condition associated with multiple birth defects as a result of rubella infection.

One of the major challenges is to reach more of rural communities, said Mr Kamugisha. “There is also need to make parents to understand the value of the vaccines and the dangers of Rubella and Measles,’’ he added.