Sawt Falasteen - Morocco fights measles outbreak amid vaccine misinformation

In Harhoura, a small coastal town near Rabat, 13-year-old Salma and her nine-year-old brother, Souhail, sit quietly in a public clinic, waiting for their second shot of measles vaccine.

Their grandmother, Rabia Maknouni, said it was after a campaign at school that the family realised they had been missing doses of the vaccine.

"We didn't know they hadn't completed their vaccination," she said. "Their parents panicked when they heard about the outbreak."

Measles is highly contagious, spreading through respiratory droplets and lingering in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves an area.

The disease causes fever, respiratory symptoms and a rash. In some cases, it also leads to severe complications, including pneumonia, brain inflammation and death.

Even though vaccination remains the best protection against the disease, immunisation rates have fallen in recent years.

The vaccine hesitancy is driven by misinformation, which has lingered since the Covid-19 pandemic.

- 'Fear of vaccines' -

In Morocco, authorities have scaled up vaccination against measles in recent months in a bid to control the outbreak.

More than 10 million schoolchildren have had their immunisation status checked since October last year, said Mourad Mrabet, an official at the National Centre for Public Health Emergencies.

Since late 2023, authorities in the North African country have reported more than 25,000 measles cases and 120 deaths, Mrabet said.

The outbreak has raised concerns in France, Morocco's former colonial ruler and leading foreign investor and trade partner.

The French public health agency has described the epidemic as reaching "historic levels" and urged travellers to check their vaccination status before visiting the kingdom.

Moroccan authorities say the number of new infections has been steadily declining in recent weeks.

They have promised to continue their vaccination programme until late March with the aim of achieving 95-percent cover, sufficient for herd immunity.

But they acknowledge they still have some way to go. The health ministry said only about half of those requiring a booster had received one by early March.

In January, government spokesman Mustapha Baitas blamed "false information that fuels public fear of vaccines".

Mrabet attributed it to "the influence of the global anti-vax movement".

In the United States, growing distrust of public health policy and pharmaceutical companies has contributed to falling vaccination rates.

In February, an unvaccinated child died of measles in Texas, where an outbreak has been spreading.

And last week, an adult from New Mexico -- which neighbours Texas -- also died from the disease.

- 'Deceptive allegations' -

To tackle misinformation, Moroccan health officials have launched awareness campaigns, including in schools, to explaining the importance of vaccination.

The education ministry's head of health programmes, Imane El Kohen, said one of the "deceptive allegations" was the claim that the measles vaccine is a fourth dose of the Covid vaccine.

Hasna Anouar, a nurse in Harhoura, has been involved in vaccination status check programmes for years.

She said that before the Covid-19 pandemic, there was little resistance to routine childhood immunisations.

But now, some parents have developed a "fear of vaccines," she said. "We have to sit down with them and explain why these shots are necessary."

Health rights activist Ali Lotfi put the decline in the vaccination rate down to "lockdown and the fear of being contaminated in hospitals".

"Afterwards, the health ministry didn't do enough to address the backlog," he said.

Z.AlNajjar--SF-PST