Authorities at the Ministry of Health in Lavushimanda District says they have managed to contained the measles cases which broke out in the fishing camps of Kapilya and Muwele in Chiundaponde Chiefdom of Muchinga Province.

Lavushimanda District Health Director for Services, Rodrick Kamunga says the disease was controlled mid this year through the measles and rubella vaccination which was rolled out in September 2024 in the area.

Dr. Kamunga explained that the department managed to vaccinate above 100 percent of all children below the age of Five years in the area, including those who migrated to Lavushimanda with their parents for fishing businesses.

“It’s a long time and we don’t have measles cases now it was sorted out because those cases are the way they come, mostly it’s those in the fishing camps that have it and when we vaccinate, we target even those that come just for fishing,” he said.

Dr. Kamunga told ZANIS that measles is a preventable disease through vaccines and that is why the Ministry of health rolls out the measles and Rubella vaccination every three years throughout the country.

In September this year, the department of Health during a stakeholder engagement meeting for measles announced that it had recorded 89 suspected measles cases in Lavushimanda from January to September 2024, whose samples were taken to Lusaka for testing and 14 samples tested positive to the disease.