A 15-year effort by a panel under the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the regional office in the Americas for the World Health Organization (WHO), has confirmed that rubella has been effectively eliminated in the whole of North and South America. The declaration comes as the region observes the 13th annual Vaccination Week. The Americas is the first region in the world to eradicate the disease that has led to thousands of birth defects and fetal deaths, according to WHO.
Rubella, also known as German measles, caused an outbreak in the '60s in the United States, leading to the death and abortion of 11,000 fetus and 20,000 birth defects among babies, according to the New York Times. In 1997 alone, 158,000 rubella cases were reported to WHO. The disease affects children and adults, but pregnant women and infants are most susceptible.
For the past 15 years, PAHO/WHO inititaled a massive effort administering vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) in the west through comprehensive immunization programs. From 1998 to 2008, an estimated 250 million people in 32 countries had been vaccinated against the disease. The organization notes that the last case of rubella in the Americas was reported in 2009.
"The elimination of rubella from the Americas is a historic achievement that reflects the collective will of our region's countries to work together to achieve ambitious public health milestones," said Carissa F. Etienne, the director of PAHO/WHO.
"Ours was the first region to eradicate smallpox, the first to eliminate polio, and now the first to eliminate rubella. All four achievements prove the value of immunization and how important it is to make vaccines available even to the remotest corners of our hemisphere."
WHO hopes that the European region and Central Asia will soon follow.
Meanwhile, a third case of rubella has been confirmed in Taiwan this week, reports the Taipei Times. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) suspects that the virus was contracted by the patient, a 50-year-old, during his travels to Sichuan in China. The CDC is urging the public to monitor symptoms like dizziness, rashes and fever for three-weeks.
