Guyana now qualifies to be certified as having attained elimination of measles, rubella and Congenital Rubella Syndrome (CRS), according to Health Minster Dr. Leslie Ramsammy.
He stressed that Guyana has a major achievement in its immunisation programmes, particularly in light of the fact that no case of measles,  rubella or CRS has occurred  here for at least 10 years.
“This represents a major victory for public health in Guyana,” he said.
Ramsammy maintained that major investments have been made, but the successes make these worth the while.
He explained that Guyana has started an international process of documentation and verification of measles, rubella and congenital rubella syndrome elimination.
Statistics from the Health Ministry show that the last case of measles in Guyana was documented in 1991.
The last case of rubella, also known as German measles, occurred in 1998, when Guyana confirmed three cases; before that there were 147 cases in 1997 and 46 cases in 1996.
As for CRS, there were four confirmed cases in 1997 and in 1998 there were two suspected cases, but these tested negative for rubella. Between then and now, there has been no case of CRS in Guyana.
According to Ramsammy, before the 1990s, measles was a killer disease in Guyana.
Today, measles as a disease, is not present in Guyana. The major reason for the elimination of measles in Guyana is because of the aggressive measles vaccination programme, a programme Guyana is proud of.
The measles vaccines were introduced in the early 1970s in Guyana; and by 1991, cases of measles dropped dramatically.
Since the 1970s, the measles vaccination programme has undergone many changes. Unlike the 1970s, when measles vaccines were given as single- dose vaccines, since 1995, the measles vaccines are provided as part of the MMR vaccine mixture that contains vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella.
In 1985, measles vaccine coverage was about 40 per cent. This was improved to 70 per cent by 1990, and today, as part of the MMR vaccine, coverage is greater than 95 per cent.
“Guyana continues to attain high coverage for measles’ for while we have reached the elimination stage, the disease can reappear quickly,” Ramsammy said.
As with measles, the major reason for the elimination of rubella is because of rubella vaccines being provided to all children in Guyana.
The rubella vaccine was introduced as part of the MMR vaccine mixture (a mix of three vaccines: attenuvax for measles, mumpsvax for mumps, and meruvax II for rubella) in 1995, and vaccine coverage is today greater than 95 per cent.
With CRS, before 1996, Guyana did not screen for it in pregnant women; in 1996, the first screening exercise was done and 14 cases of CRS in pregnant women were detected. This led to the decision to introduce MMR vaccines for women of reproductive age and Guyana started to provide MMR vaccines for six to 30-year-olds in 1999. Today all pregnant women who have never received MMR vaccines are provided with them.