Northern Province has recorded more than three hundred cases of measles since the first case of the disease was reported in Mpulungu district in November last year.
Northern Province Health Specialist, Paul Mayeya, says Senga Hill, Mbala and Nsama districts have also recorded cases of measles.
Dr Mayeya has however assured the affected districts that the Ministry of Health is on high alert to control the disease by strengthening supervision of routine immunisation activities.
He told ZANIS in an interview in Kasama today that the provincial health office is also conducting measles vaccination campaigns in the affected areas and in the rest of the province.
Dr Mayeya stated that health experts are also continuing with the dissemination of information about the disease to the public on how they can detect it.
He has since encouraged people in communities to rush to the hospital for early treatment when they detect symptoms.
Dr Mayeya has further urged people in the province to take extra care of their health and seek medical advice when they see any direct symptoms.
The solution is simple. Work with chiefs and headmen to ensure that every birth and death that occurs outside a health facility is recorded and all babies in villages are vaccinated. It’s a sign of absence of the state in villages that such a disease is breaking out because there’s no one to enforce compulsory vaccination of babies in villages.
Its going on in cities too… less reported though because most cases are successfully managed by walk in pharmacies.
Should we maybe question the efficacy of vaccines previously given? Or possibly a new strain?