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Advocacy materials |
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Regional Director’s message
English | Arabic
Message from UN Secretary General
English (pdf, 16.09 Kb) | Arabic (pdf, 21.53 Kb) | French (pdf, 9.85 Kb) |
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Disease control/elimination |
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Maintaining a high level of immunization in the community is the single most important preventive measure.
Since Hib disease is responsible for considerable proportion of mortality among under five years children in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, introduction of Hib vaccine and achieving high vaccination coverage is an important tool towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal number 4 (MDG4). Accelerating the introduction of the vaccine in the countries in the region is deemed necessary.
By February 2012, Hib vaccine had been introduced in 19 countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, which accounts for just over three quarters of annual regional births. The average regional coverage of Hib vaccine increased from 1% in 2000 to 53% in 2010. |
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Disease control/elimination |
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Disease control/elimination |
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The Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean, in its 56th session, in October 2009, resolved that the regional goal for hepatitis B control would be to reduce the prevalence of chronic hepatitis B infection to less than 1% among children less than five years by 2015.
Vaccination is the most effective way to prevent hepatitis B. Hepatitis B childhood vaccination has resulted in a significant reduction of hepatitis B infections among vaccinated cohorts. The average regional coverage of third dose of hepatitis B-containing vaccine increased from 39% to 84% between 2000 and 2010.
The main challenge facing achieving the regional target for hepatitis B is the lack of implementation of the birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine in the high burden countries and the low coverage of the actual birth dose (given within 24 hours of birth) in most of the countries that implement the birth dose.
The growing threats of hepatitis B and C in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: a call for action |
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Disease control/elimination |
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In 1997, the 22 countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) had resolved to eliminate measles from their region by 2010 (EM/RC44/R.6).
The Eastern Mediterranean Regional strategy to eliminate measles calls for:
Achieve and sustain >95% coverage with measles containing vaccine through high-quality routine immunization services at National and district level;
Provide a second opportunity for measles immunization to susceptible groups;
Strong case-base surveillance with laboratory confirmation; and
Clinical management of measles cases.
Since then the Region has made substantial progress towards achieving measles elimination and reducing the burden of Measles disease. By 2008, measles deaths had decreased to 7000 deaths from 96 000 in 2000 a reduction of 93%. The number of confirmed measles cases decreased from about 88 000 in 1998 to 11 295 in 2011. The goal of the WHO–UNICEF Global Immunization Vision and Strategy (GIVS), achieving 90% reduction of measles mortality by 2010 compared to 2000 levels, was achieved three years before the target date.
All countries have implemented the nationwide catch-up campaign. The regional average of measles-containing vaccine (MCV1) coverage, increased from 79% in 2000 to 88% in 2010. Approximately 400 million people in the Region have been vaccinated through supplementary immunization activities since the elimination target was established. Maintaining immunity through high vaccination coverage levels is essential to eliminate measles and limit the spread of measles from imported cases. |
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