‘Such Thing Not Happened In Belarus For 20 Years’

Our country is experiencing a sharp spike in the incidence of measles.

Alarming information about the increasing incidence of measles was voiced at the second Homel International Congress ‘Infectious Diseases, Microbiology and Immunology’, write ‘White Coats’.

Head of the laboratory of vaccine-controlled infections, Professor Alena Samailovich, characterises the situation in 2024 as ‘quite disappointing’. She said that such a number of identified measles cases ‘has not been observed for more than 20 years’. The cases have been registered in all the regions. The highest morbidity is observed in Brest, Homel and Mahiliou regions.

Alena Samailovich described one case of a measles outbreak: in November 2023, 14 people simultaneously fell ill ‘when they visited the Dana-Mall shopping centre in Minsk, where they must have crossed paths with a measles source. The source of measles quickly left our country, we could not identify it’. A total of 58 importations of the virus of different genotypes were registered in 2023.

It is worth noting an important point: Belarus is now at risk of losing its measles-free status. It can be returned only after convincing evidence of the absence of the virus endemic circulation in the country for 36 months. We will find this out after the announcement of the annual 2023 update on measles elimination status in the member states of the WHO European Region.

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