The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

AS many as 25,000 people have no vaccination coverage for the highly infectious measles disease, Health Minister Dr Duane Sands said yesterday.

The public's vaccination rate remains at about 89 to 90 percent, but it could be better, the minister told reporters at Cabinet.

Officials want the rate to return to about 95 percent.

Dr Sands made an appeal for the general public to cooperate with health officials who continue a campaign to increase MMR1 vaccinations for measles, mumps and rubella. The minister made the comments while downplaying the threat of a potentially deadly mosquito-borne virus present in central Florida.

He reiterated that roughly only seven people die each year of the disease in the US compared with the hundreds of thousands who have died around the world from measles.

The Florida Department of Health in Orange County released a statement last Thursday advising the public of the rise of the Eastern Equine Encephalitis virus (EEEV), which can cause brain-swelling infections in humans.

According to health officials there a number of Sentinel chickens in Orange County tested positive for the virus which can be transmitted to humans through infected mosquitos.

"We still have at least 20,000 to 25,000 more persons that have to be vaccinated in order to get to that 95 percent (vaccination) mark. So when the public health team comes to your work place, to your school etcetera, then please don't be disagreeable, participate and do what they ask you to do," Dr Sands said.

In February, the minister said nearly 50,000 children and adults needed to receive the MMR1 vaccine.

At the time he said officials were targeting 7,000 children between one to 15-years-old and 40,800 of them 16-years and older.

The objective he said was to increase MMR immunisation coverage in all children 15 years and younger by ensuring two doses of MMR vaccine are administered.

Officials were also aiming to to immunise all healthcare workers and front line tourist workers with two doses each. This category includes all law enforcement departments, hotel workers, taxi drivers, airport workers, port workers, straw vendors and storefront workers.

Not long after Dr Sands' revelation, health officials confirmed that a four-year-old tourist had a suspected case of measles. The child had been taken to a private health care facility in New Providence with the symptoms of the disease and the parents gave a recent history of travel from Europe and a vaccination history for the child that did not include the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) immunisation.

And then in early March, the child's older brother also contracted the disease. He was quarantined and did not pose a threat to anyone else, Dr Sands said. The cases highlighted how international travel is a catalysts for the transmission of such diseases. There were no further reported cases since then.