“The country cannot lose its measles-free status. This is everyone’s responsibility,” Lustemberg said in a statement to the press, while also remembering the detection in November of several cases in a family in Rio Negro department, who contracted the disease in Bolivia.

The minister urged those born after 1967 to get vaccinated if they are unsure whether they have received both doses in the country, where measles immunization is mandatory, free, and universal.

Children receive the first dose at one year of age and the second starting at 15 months.

The Ministry of Public Health (MSP) will conduct a vaccination campaign in all 19 departments on December 6, to maintain the country’s measles-free status, which it has held since 1999.

The Americas region lost this measles-free status in November due to outbreaks in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, as well as in Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Belize.

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