Measles killed three children in Kyrgyzstan since beginning of year
Three children have died of measles in Kyrgyzstan since the beginning of the year, Director of the Republican Center for Immunoprophylaxis Gulbara Ishenapysova told during a press conference at Kabar News Agency.
She said that since February 2023, country applications to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization were prepared and the country received more than 1.5 thousand doses of vaccine against measles and rubella to the amount of more than USD 1.3 million.
“The target group was more than 1.6 million children across the country, so far more than 800,000 children have been vaccinated with step-by-step additional immunization activities. The goal of our company was to cover at least 95% of our target group of children from 9 months to 7 years inclusive, but, unfortunately, we have not achieved this percentage, and it is more than 85% today. There are regions that have not even reached 80% coverage, only 60%-70%. Therefore, we will also vaccinate contact persons, university students, and students of medical schools, who are assisting in localizing this outbreak. More than 2 thousand workers will find unvaccinated children and will invite them. The flu and ARVI season has started, we need to protect children and vaccinate them. We need to achieve full localization and drive the virus out of our country,” the director said.
Ishenapysova noted that nine children died of measles last year and said that 20,000 refusals to vaccinate were registered in 2023, 43% of whom refused because of religious beliefs.
“Last year, joint work with the National Committee on Religion, Spiritual Administration of Muslims gave a tremendous result and the number of refuseniks for religious reasons decreased. And in 2018-2019, the number of refusers was 70%. The analysis showed that many parents refused because of doubts about the quality and safety of vaccines.
In this direction, we are carrying out work. The population wished us to make a fatwa on all types of vaccines, we are also working on this now. We disseminate information on the safety and composition of vaccines through websites, and social networks and share it with the population. The ministry's hotline is also working. Every day we receive 20-30 calls from parents about the quality and safety of vaccines,” Ishenapysova added.
As earlier reported, over 13,000 cases of measles registered in Kyrgyzstan in 2024.