The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville said the government is re-engaging senior staff involved in the national immunisation programme amid mounting concern over a resurgence of measles in developed countries and declining vaccination rates in The Bahamas.

Health officials are “very concerned”, Dr Darville said, as measles cases climb internationally. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported over 600 cases in 2025 alone.

The minister said the government is working closely with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and deploying pop-up vaccination clinics to improve outreach. He acknowledged that the country’s 2023 immunisation rate of 86 to 87 percent falls below the 95 percent threshold needed for herd immunity.

“We are about to go on a very aggressive crusade, along with the Ministry of Education and our school population to ensure that we do a better job in immunising and to get our numbers above 85 to 90 percent,” Dr Darville said.

Officials say the drop in vaccination coverage stems in part from disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and anti-vaccination rhetoric from that era.

Gina Rose, national coordinator of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), previously warned that The Bahamas remains at risk of a measles outbreak if vaccination rates are not improved. She stressed that children under five are the most vulnerable and said any future case would likely be imported from abroad. The last recorded case of measles in The Bahamas was in 2019, involving a visiting child.

Dominique McCartney-Russell, Director of Education, has said that immunisation requirements for school registration were temporarily relaxed during the pandemic due to overburdened health services and logistical issues. She said the Ministry of Education has since resumed normal enforcement of these requirements.