Immigrants: Potential Menace for Measles Elimination Target in Iran

Khazaei, Salman; Nematollahi, Shahrzad; Ayubi, Erfan; Ahmadi-Pishkuhi, Mahin

doi:10.22038/ijp.2016.6758

Immigrants: Potential Menace for Measles Elimination Target in Iran

Authors

¹ Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran.

² Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

³ Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

10.22038/ijp.2016.6758

Abstract

Measles is a highly contagious disease. By the end of 2013, 84% of children had received at least a single dose of measles vaccine by their second birthday, and 148 countries had included a second dose as part of routine immunization. In 2002, the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education developed a comprehensive strategy to eliminate Measles including mass immunization campaign for people aged 5-25 years (1).
Suburban areas where residents usually are nomads or migrants with low socio-economic status (SES), pose a serious threat to the success of any prevention program(2) . There are a huge yet unknown number of Iranian immigrants and illegal refugees living in suburbs of large cities in Iran, where low participation of families in vaccination services might be a challenge (3). In this report, we try to highlight the importance of migrants and immigrants on the success of Measles vaccination programs.

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