As students return to classrooms after the school break, the urgent need for collective immunization against the measles epidemic becomes even more pressing in Morocco. While the Ministry has extended the catch-up vaccination campaign, specialists emphasize the importance of vigilance in monitoring immunization against other deadly childhood diseases and advocate for making vaccination mandatory. As the number of measles cases continues to rise in Morocco, going back to school after the holidays further underscores the urgency of achieving optimal vaccination coverage to control the spread of the disease. However, the voluntary catch-up vaccination campaign alone is not enough. Tayeb Hamdi, a Moroccan doctor and researcher in health policy and systems, points out that «after ten days or so when schools were empty, the epidemic will slow down for two or three weeks before picking up again due to the low level of collective immunity». In this respect, the specialist reminds us that «measles is a highly contagious, serious disease, but, fortunately, preventable», highlighting the importance of re-establishing the minimum vaccination coverage of 95%. While insisting on this point and on prevention, Dr. Hamdi warns that the current situation is a sign of what is to come for other fatal childhood diseases in a country that has been a «world leader in the vaccination of children against target diseases» for years. Medical and territorial intervention Among the measures to be taken, the doctor does not rule out «the introduction of compulsory vaccination against deadly childhood diseases, for which vaccines have demonstrated very high levels of efficacy and safety». Indeed, he insists that the transmission of these viruses must be curbed in the current context, not only to save lives but also to prevent the worsening of simultaneous crisis management. For this reason, Dr. Hamdi believes that current measures against the spread of measles are «important, necessary, unavoidable, and vital, but still insufficient». To this end, he recommends «stepping up vaccination of children in accordance with the vaccination schedule, rather than simply carrying out catch-up campaigns». Dr. Hamdi also warns that the drop in vaccination rates does not only concern measles. «The other elements of the vaccination schedule are certainly below protection levels», posing the risk of a resurgence of various diseases thought to be under control, such as whooping cough, diphtheria, poliomyelitis, and others. In response to the vaccine hesitancy observed worldwide following the 2020 health crisis, the practitioner recommends raising awareness among adults born after 1980, encouraging them to get vaccinated if they are not fully vaccinated and have never caught measles, «especially among at-risk groups». Vaccination management surveys to understand the situation In addition to these public health actions in the field, which Dr. Hamdi recommends should be anchored in a logic of territorial coordination, the doctor believes that raising awareness to return to optimal vaccination coverage would not be successful and sustained without understanding the causes that led to the spread of the epidemic. To this end, he stresses the need for «investigations and audits within the Ministry of Health and Social Protection» to «understand what has been going on all these years». According to the doctor, this involves examining the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and parents' reluctance to vaccinate, as well as investigating «the slackening of the vaccination offer on the part of the services concerned and health professionals». The specialist points out that this trend has been observed in Morocco against a backdrop of «human resource shortages, repetitive strikes and work stoppages, and lack of motivation», among other decisive factors. In the same vein, the specialist emphasizes the importance of identifying the «causes of the lax epidemiological surveillance of childhood diseases», which has «allowed measles cases to appear on a large scale, without the recrudescence being detected in time». It remains to be seen, too, «how vaccination rates fell so low without monitoring at regional and national levels being able to raise the alarm» before this spread gave rise to the current epidemic.
