By Vincent Gunde
The Dowa District Health Office ( DHO) says the Measles – Rubella (MR) follow – up campaign targeting 9 months to 9 years and Vitamin A supplementation targeting 6 months to 59 months children for vaccination will be conducted in the district from the 21st to 25th September, 2026.
The Campaign will be implemented over a period of 5 days to enable proper coverage of all target children with mobilizers selected from the already existing community structures.
In a school set up, teachers will be part of the team who will assist in mobilizing the students and it is being expected that one Vaccinator will vaccinate between 100 – 150 children in both static and temporary or mobile sites.
Briefing the District executive committee (Dec) at a meeting held at the Boma, EPI Coordinator for District Health Office in Dowa Precious Mlotha, said the national coverage for both Measles and Rubella dose one and second dose has been consistently sub optimal over the years saying the MR2 coverage has been consistently lower than 80 percent since 2016.
Mlotha said the most affected age group is under 10 children saying the purpose of the vaccine is to vaccinate over 95 percent of the targeted children 9 months to 9 years in all the districts through strengthening surveillance and case detection, reinforcing routine immunization services to prevent future outbreaks.
He said it is expected that the vaccine will reach all children with Measles – Rubella (MR) through campaign mode using fixed, outreach, and mobile teams.
The EPI Coordinator said Measles is one of the most contagious diseases – it requires maintaining high population immunity to prevent outbreaks saying the disease remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide
He said Malawi has experienced a significant measles outbreak with over 376 confirmed cases reported as of August, 2026 saying the heavily affected districts are in the Central and Southern Region districts including Nsanje, Chikwawa, Balaka, Lilongwe and Kasungu.
“Measles is a highly infectious viral disease caused by measles virus transmitted through droplet infection from person to person within 10 – 12 days,” said Mlotha.
He said all suspected measles cases should be investigated within 24 hours of receiving information and should be reported to the nearest health facility, and then to the District Health Office (DHO).
Mlotha said blood specimen should be taken locally within 6 days and up to one month from onset of rash, fever, conjunctivitis, running nose characterizing measles.
He said after vaccine administration, the Vaccinator should inform the mother or caregiver about possible adverse reaction and when they may occur and advising the mother or care giver about child’s next routine vaccination.
In 2024 , global measles cases increased to 11 million cases compared to 10.34 million in 2023 caused 95,000 deaths primarily among unvaccinated or under vaccinated Under Five children.
The Measles – Rubella (MR) follow – up campaign and vitamin A supplementation will be implemented across the country with support from World Health Organization (WHO), Gavi Alliance, and UNICEF.
