HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 15 (acn) Since 1993 Cuba has remained free of measles, a disease that has yet to be eradicated in Europe due to currently insufficient rates of vaccination.

The Granma newspaper reported on Thursday that Cuba’s achievement is the result of its immunization action that started in 1971. This is part of the national vaccination program that includes 11 vaccines to protect the public from 13 diseases.

In the Caribbean country, over 98 percent of all one-year-old children, as well as all six-year olds, receive annual immunizations against measles.

Marlén Valcárcel Sánchez, the national head of the Ministry of Public Health vaccination program, said periodical follow-ups are done on these youth.

According to British magazine The Lancet, a study done in 32 European countries revealed that over 12,000 cases of the measles were reported between 2006 and 2007—mostly in Romania, Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland and Italy.

Jacques R. Kremer and Claude P. Muller, both from the World Health Organization (WHO), said that the importation of the virus from Europe has caused several outbreaks in Latin America,

The WHO officials pointed out that the rich countries must start a comprehensive vaccination program so the disease will not affect poor nations.

They pointed to the examples of the lacklustre vaccination programs in Germany (which covers less than 70 percent of the children), and in Italy (which attends to less than 90 percent of the children). To eliminate measles a program has to cover a minimum 95 percent of the target population in two doses.

From the Cuban News Agency