Control of Measles in Nigeria: A Critical Review of the Literature

The Millennium Development Goals identify the health and wellbeing of children as important indices of meaningful development. An important aspect of child survival is the control of vaccine-preventable diseases. Measles remains an important cause of death among young children globally, despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine. Although global measles deaths have been reduced by 74% between year 2000 and 2010, the world measles burden still resides in the developing world with measles epidemics occurring in a large and recurrent manner with associated high mortality. These outbreaks can forestall the effects of the control and eradication of measles globally. Nigeria has been experiencing the incidence of measles outbreaks which have occurred in the year 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2011. These outbreaks are a cause of concern particularly the outbreak in 2011 which occurred following a mass measles vaccination campaign earlier that year. Efforts to improve control have been on-going and progress has been made particularly with the establishment in 2006 of a system of measles case-based surveillance, however in the myriad of factors plaguing the control of measles in the country, low immunization coverage is still the main factor involved. The inability to control measles is a reflection of the work that needs to be done as regards our immunization coverage and structures that are needed to be put in place.
Chronic low immunization and the factors that contribute to it should be addressed with measures and structures that can achieve long term effect. These factors have already been identified and solutions tailored to them need to start taking place. The effect of political and financial committment in achieving this is invaluable especially if the country would achieve the fourth millenium development goal to reduce under-five mortality by two-thirds to which measles is a significant contributor in this part of the world.