RIYADH, 24 November 2007 — A senior Health Ministry official announced yesterday that 7.1 million people in the age group of nine months to 18 years were covered by the massive vaccination drive against measles that ended on Wednesday.
On Aug. 25, Health Minister Dr. Hamad Al-Manie flagged off the nationwide campaign in Riyadh. Respective governors from various health regions launched similar programs throughout the Kingdom.
“We had nine million doses for 6.5 million children and adults during the campaign,” said Dr. Amin Mishkas, director for infectious diseases at the Ministry of Health.
He added that these vaccines were administered free of charge to nationals as well as expatriates through family clinics and government hospitals. Vaccination was done among the school children with the cooperation of the Ministry of Education.
“During the campaign, we also instructed our health regions to carry out awareness programs to persuade parents to get their children vaccinated within the targeted period,” he said,
Mishkas said such a campaign had borne fruit during this program enabling the ministry to go beyond its target. The ministry also carried out this campaign through its mobile units to reach people in remote areas, he added.
The campaign was carried out in two phases: the first phase was aimed at children from nine months to six years of age while the second phase, which started Oct. 22, was meant for those who were between the age group of nine and 18 years.
In accordance with the comprehensive national plan set out by the GCC Health Ministers Council in conjunction with the World Health Organization (WHO), the ministry is determined to wipe out measles from the Kingdom by 2010, according to Mishkas.
Mishkhas said that measles was eradicated in the Americas in 2000 and that Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean have set 2010 as the time limit for eradication. The Western Pacific has fixed a 2012 target.
He said the ministry would review achievements of the campaign in the coming weeks and would see what it could do for those cases that were not covered. It was reported that 79 percent of those between the ages of nine months and six years were covered in its first stage, while 78 percent of those in the age group of 6 to 18 years were covered in the second phase.
