Measles outbreak active surveillance and response amidst COVID-19 pandemic response programs in Edea health district, Littoral, Cameroon

Introduction Emerging and reemerging outbreaks have increased as government and communities have relaxed COVID-19 pandemic prevention measures and emergency response interventions implementation nationwide in Cameroon. Measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases, ten times more contagious than Covid-19. In a context of weak population adherence and low coverage rate of COVID-19 vaccination, after the epidemiological threshold was reached in the Edea health district, little is documented on measles outbreak active surveillance and response. Methods A cross-sectional and descriptive analysis of Measles cases from February to April 2022 in the Edea health district, Littoral region. A pre-structured and pretested questionnaire survey was used to document data and information on Measles outbreak cases, contact tracking and consultation to care delivery in the consultation registers of health facilities and in the community Results A total of 93 measles cases were identified, none of which were fatal. 60.2% (56/93) of these cases were from the Beon health area. Of the 20 cases sampled and sent to the reference laboratory, 4 were confirmed. The median age was 5 (3 months ± 14 years) with a sex ratio of 1.16, and the most affected age group was under-five years with 50 children (53.8%). Of the suspected cases, 100% had fever and generalized rash and cough; 89.2% (83/93) had not received any measles vaccine dose. Only 3/93 children (3.2%) were fully vaccinated against measles. District teams were deployed for response with vaccination catchup campaign in the affected health area. Conclusion Measles outbreak was confirmed in the Edea Health District during the 26 th epidemiologic week. Reinforcing Measles and making COVID-19 vaccination accessible and readily available to most vulnerable and remote populations is crucial to prevent and to contain ongoing and future outbreaks, in addition to scaling up COVID19 preventive measures and recovery programs