Measles: three infants and two adults, ministry won't declare epidemic

North Macedonia has recorded a fifth recent measles case — a one-and-a-half-year-old infant — the Ministry of Health said, bringing the tally to three infants, one 45-year-old man and one citizen of Kosovo with laboratory-confirmed measles. Minister Sasho Klekovski said the ministry will not declare a new epidemic and does not plan to launch forced vaccination measures.

Past response and current approach

Klekovski argued that coercive campaigns have proved counterproductive in the past and therefore will not be used now. On a reporter’s question about whether banning unvaccinated children from kindergartens — a legal obligation — would be applied, he replied: "You know that this was being circumvented."

The ministry is instead calling on parents to cooperate with family doctors and pediatricians and stressing information and voluntary vaccination as the preferred tools.

Looking back, on 2 January 2019 then-Minister of Health Venko Filipche declared a measles epidemic in Skopje after 12 new cases were registered. All infected were unvaccinated; the patients included children aged eight months and adults aged 32 and 47. Filipche announced a temporary measure, effective 3 January 2019, banning all unvaccinated children from attending kindergartens in the City of Skopje. From some 15,000 unvaccinated children who were invited at vaccination points, only 310 were vaccinated.

Klekovski gave practical advice for parents and the public, saying: "The first recommendation to citizens is not to go to the doctor, but to call the doctor, because going into a waiting room is the greatest risk for spreading measles. At this moment there are no hospitalised patients, however guidance has been given to one clinical hospital for the hospitalisation of infants, because the most affected group are infants up to 12 months who, of course, are not vaccinated, but also the unvaccinated in general. For adults, the Infectious Diseases Clinic is appropriate," he said today.

The minister added that authorities will rely on awareness-raising rather than compulsory steps. "My children have been vaccinated, I got vaccinated against seasonal flu to demonstrate that there is no better protection than vaccination. I again appeal to parents that by not vaccinating they primarily endanger their own children, and then those children who cannot be vaccinated up to 12 months," Klekovski said.

Photo: K. Popov)