Measles alert for Panama

After notice of measles outbreaks in neighboring countries, and several within the country, the Social Security Fund maintains announced a state of alert in Panama promoting the MMR vaccine.

The MMR vaccine (Papera, Rubella and Measles) has recently been applied to 1,853 people and the MR vaccine (Rubella and Measles) to 3,634.

Since recently, the infectious and very contagious disease had practically been eradicated in the country, with the last reported case in 1996 in one of Panama’s indigenous community. 

María Ríos González, National Coordinator of the Expanded Immunization Program of the Social Security Fund (CSS), said that, although in 2011, four cases of imported measles were treated and controlled, and vaccination plans were taken. However, since 2018 outbreaks of measles are on the rise in neighboring countries. In an effort to protect the population new immunization programs have been started. 

Last year, in the month of March, 296,019 doses of vaccines were applied to prevent this disease, in a vaccination campaign against measles, to children aged 1-4 years; action carried out jointly by the Ministry of Health and the Social Security Fund, at a national level.

Recently, during the "Vaccination Campaign of the Americas, 2019", officials of the Social Security Fund applied vaccines to 84,304 people; of this total, the MMR vaccine (Papera, Rubella and Measles) was applied to 1,853 people and the MR vaccine (Rubella and Measles) was 3,634.