By decision of the political leadership of the Ministry of Health (Prime Minister Ms. E. Agapidakis) and on the initiative of the President of EODY Prof. X. Hatzichristodoulou a working group was formed to strengthen the vaccination coverage of the population and to deal with possible measles casesunder the coordination of Professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, member of the National Immunization Committee (NEC) and alternate member of the EODY Board of Directors, Ms. Vasiliki Papaevangelou.

The working group includes the Professor and President of the EEE Ms. Maria Theodoridou, the President of the Board of the NGO “Health for All” Ms. Eleni Sotiropoulou, as well as officials from the Ministry of Health and EODY.

The establishment of the working group was deemed appropriate as there are reports of measles outbreaks in Romania with more than 3,000 reported cases, in France, the United Kingdom and Austria.

In our country, the last outbreak of measles occurred in 2017-2018 with more than 3200 cases, while in the years 2022 and 2023 no cases were reported. The two laboratory-confirmed cases recorded so far within 2024 involved adults with prior contact with a person residing in a country with an outbreak of measles. The possibility of two more cases among the contacts of the confirmed cases (medical staff) is being investigated.

It took place on Friday 2.2.2024 the first online meeting of the members of the working group in order to assess the risk of outbreaks in our country and to propose specific actions to prevent and control the spread of the disease.

Based on international epidemiological data and high transmissibility of the disease, the probability of occurrence of cases is considered high. Nevertheless, according to the results of a sero-epidemiological study of immunity against measles in the period 2020-2021, the immunity of the Greek population is considered satisfactory since 89.8% of the participants in the study had antibodies against measles (protection from the disease), either through past illness or through vaccination.

According to the above, it becomes clear that at this stage there is no reason for particular concernbut the competent authorities must be alert and the population of our country must be aware and follow the recommendations of the competent authorities.

To prevent outbreaks of measles the following measures were decided:

In order of priority:

  • Informing the population to check their vaccination coverage and timely completion of two-dose vaccinationaccording to the National Vaccination Program, in case it has not been completed and there is no previous recorded illness.
  • Additional information actions with the cooperation of the Ministry of Healthof Municipalities and local medical associations in areas with low vaccination coverage.
  • Cooperation of EODY with the NGO “Health for All” for carrying out mass vaccination in Roma camps with the assistance of COMY. For this purpose, EODY will procure measles-rubella-mumps vaccines.
  • Update refugee and immigrant accommodation centersalthough the hosts are usually vaccinated, due to the mobility of the population and the homogeneity that favors transmission.
  • Informing the medical and nursing staff and assessing their vaccination coverage.
  • Advising travelers to complete measles vaccination prior to travelespecially if they are going to travel to countries with outbreaks, in collaboration with travel agencies.

It was decided that the Working Group would meet at regular intervals to coordinate the mentioned actions based on the data of the EODY surveillance systems.