Parents urged to vaccinate children after detection of measles
Greater Francistown District Health Management Team (DHMT) has confirmed two cases of measles in Chadibe village.
Measles is a highly contagious disease that is spread through respiratory droplets from infected individuals when coughing or sneezing. It is caused by a virus. Patients with measles present with fever and a rash. The rash looks like small, red, flat spots over the body. The rash does not form blisters, nor is it itchy or painful. Some of the signs include a cough, conjunctivitis, running nose, fever, fatigue and muscle pain.
“We have confirmed two cases in the community through laboratory testing and tests are underway for other suspected cases at schools. Health authorities in the affected communities are working together to identify contacts and putting interventions in place,” spokesperson of the Francistown DHMT, Keekae Majeremane said in an interview.
Majeremane said while there was concern and a need to be vigilant, the situation is still developing and not yet at outbreak. The World Health Organisation (WHO) classifies a Measles outbreak as three or more cases reported within 30 days in a defined district.
According to Majeremane, the two cases recorded were of children who have not been vaccinated against measles.
“We still have a problem of parents who not only visit health facilities for routine check-ups when expecting, some even choose to give birth at home and fail to ensure that their children take routine vaccinations.
“Ensuring that children are vaccinated against measles and other preventable childhood diseases is a matter of life or death,” he stated, and called on all parents and caregivers to check the status of their children’s immunisation coverage and to get up to date as quickly as possible”.
According to the Botswana’s Expanded Programme on immunisation (EPI), children should be immunised against measles at nine months old and a booster at 18 months old. Measles is a vaccine-preventable disease but can be deadly, particularly for children who have missed routine childhood immunisations.
The WHO says that children under one year of age may develop complicated measles including bronchopneumonia, keratoconjunctivitis, and rarely, encephalitis. These complications may lead to irreversible damage and or death, especially in immuno-compromised or malnourished children.
Furthermore, even healthy children who develop measles develop transient immune-suppression and are more susceptible to common childhood illnesses for at least one year after infection.