News
Measles vaccination pitched as shield against potential death
View(s):By Sajanya Sathanathan
Health professionals strongly urge parents to use available immunisation services to protect their children and the wider community from the serious health threats from measles, a highly contagious and potentially fatal disease but preventable through vaccination.
Doctors in outpatient clinics, wards, and general practitioners have been urged to report cases immediately.
Blood sampling and investigations are done free at the Medical Research Institute. Medical Officers of Health (MOH) and field staff lead preventive efforts. When a positive case is found, 50 households in the area are surveyed to check for further cases and immunity gaps, Consultant Epidemiologist at the Ministry of Health Dr Athula Liyanapathirana said.
Professionals have advised vigilance on early signs, including high fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes, and a rash. Immediate medical attention should be sought if symptoms appear.
Sri Lanka was certified by the WHO as having eliminated measles in 2019. However, an outbreak occurred in 2023. While control measures curbed the 2023 outbreak and there were no cases from January 2025, two new cases were recently detected in the Colombo district.
Dr Liyanapathirana said genotyping of one of these recent cases confirmed it was an imported strain, not one currently circulating within Sri Lanka. Their parents had deliberately withheld the vaccine due to misinformation and myths.
Measles is a serious and potentially deadly disease, not just a simple fever and rash. Risks including pneumonia, encephalitis (brain infection), severe diarrhoea, deafness, and blindness. It can cause low birth weight, premature deliveries, and stillbirths. It can destroy the body’s memory cells, causing a person to lose their existing immunity to other diseases and making them highly vulnerable to other infections.
Dr Liyanapathirana said there is a condition called ‘Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis’ (SSPE), which can cause slow death, where a patient can develop a 100% fatal brain infection years after recovering from the initial illness.
In 2024, there were an estimated 95,000 deaths worldwide due to measles.
During the last outbreak, the highest number of cases was among young adults in the 20–30 age group. Complications are most common in children under five years old and adults over 20 years old.
The Ministry of Health’s Epidemiology Unit assigned a team of junior medical doctors, and they have visited more than 240 families. Following these counselling visits, about 28 previously unvaccinated children were immunised, Medical Officer of Health, Colombo Municipal Council, Dr Dammika Adikariwattage said.
Health officials have been vaccinating a special cohort of youngsters not known to be vaccinated or who only received a single dose.
Children usually receive two doses of the MMR vaccine (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) at 9 months and 3 years of age. Vaccine coverage in the country was exceptionally high, exceeding 99% to 100%, partly due to the high female literacy rate and mothers’ concern for their children’s health.
Because the Ministry of Health felt people might not be honest with health authorities, the Department of Sociology at the University of Colombo did a study to identify the real issues behind the hesitancy to be vaccinated.
The study focused on specific MOH areas in six districts: Colombo (Maligawatta, Wanathamulla, and Colombo North); Kalutara (Bandaragama); Gampaha (Negombo and Kelaniya); Kandy (Akurana); Galle (Galle city); and Ampara (Kalmunai).
The study found clusters of unvaccinated children. These children were no longer shielded by a highly immunised population. Some groups viewed vaccines as being against their religion. Specifically, there were concerns within some Muslim communities that vaccines might contain contents related to pigs. In some areas, groups formed to forcefully refuse vaccines and discouraged others from vaccinating their children.
Some parents preferred vaccinating at private hospitals because they were unhappy with government centres; however, this led to a lack of data for health authorities to track coverage.
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