Measles is one of the top five leading causes of death and illness in children in the country, according to medical experts. It causes complications such as blindness, bronchitis, decrease in blood platelets, decrease in blood platelets, ear infection, miscarriage or preterm labour and severe diarrhea.
It is an infectious disease that causes fever and a red rash on the skin. Also known as Rubeola or morbilli it mainly affects children but can also occur at any age.
A consultant family physician with the Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital, Dr. Habiba Zubairu Dabo described measles as one of the leading causes of death among children in spite of the availability of a safe and effective vaccine.
She said the disease occurs more during the hot dry season and is caused by a virus called paramyxovirus.
“It is passed on through direct contact and through the air. The virus also infects the respiratory tract and then spreads through the body,” she said.
The expert said the symptoms of measles begin after an incubation period of 10 to 12 days with fever, running nose, red watery eyes with small spots inside the cheeks. This is then followed by rashes after some days which begin to appear behind the ears, on the neck, face then after about three days, the rashes spreads to the whole body.
“The rash lasts for about five to six days and then begin to fade. Measles is highly contagious and spreads by coughing or sneezing and also through close personal contact or direct contact with infected nasal or throat secretions. It can be transmitted by an infected person from four days before the onset of the rashes to four days after the rashes erupt,” she added.
Dr Dabo said measles was more common among unimmunized children, poorly nourished children, those with weakened immune system either by HIV/ AIDS or other illnesses.
However, the expert stressed that prevention of measles is through routine immunization for children, saying it is safe and cost effective.
“All children in developing countries diagnosed with measles should receive vitamin A supplements. Other preventive measures is encouraging mothers to improve on their personal hygiene and to bring their children early to the hospital whenever a child falls ill. Mothers should also avoid their children coming in contact with an infected child,” Dr Dabo advised.
The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Faisal Shuaib at one-day media orientation forum for the 2017 Measles Vaccination Campaign in Abuja recently stated that a surveillance data shows that measles incidence among children under five years increased in the northern part of Nigeria from 190 million in 2014 to 527 million in 2016.
An official of UNICEF, Margaret Adaba said Nigeria has also said that Nigeria has the highest number of children in the world not immunised with the first dose of measles vaccine, saying, Nigeria has over 3.3 million of such children, followed by India with 2.9 million.
The Kaduna State government last week disclosed its target to immunize one million children under the age of five against measles.
Deputy Director of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Malam Hamza Ikara during a media sensitisation meeting said the exercise would be conducted in two phases across the state beginning from October 26 to 31 and November 2 – 7, 2017.
He explained that the immunisation exercise would take place in all the 1,168 primary health facilities in the state, adding that the state government has approved the sum of N38million for the measles campaign as its counterpart fund while development partners are assisting with training of workers and supervisors.
“We have concluded arrangements to ensure that no mother trek more than one kilometer to get her child immunised. We want to achieve 95 to 100 percent compliance to ensure total eradication of measles,” he said.
