The Global Measles and Rubella Laboratory Network Supports High-Quality Surveillance.

With 762 laboratories, the Global Measles and Rubella Laboratory Network (GMRLN) is the largest laboratory network coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO). Like the Global Polio Laboratory Network, the GMRLN has multiple tiers, including global specialized laboratories, regional reference laboratories, national laboratories, and, in some countries, subnational laboratories. Regional networks are supervised by regional laboratory coordinators reporting to a global coordinator at WHO headquarters.

Importation and Circulation of Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus Serotype 2, Senegal, 2020-2021.

Environmental surveillance for poliovirus is increasingly used in poliovirus eradication efforts as a supplement to acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance. Environmental surveillance was officially established in 2017 in Senegal, where no poliovirus had been detected since 2010. We tested sewage samples from 2 sites in Dakar monthly for polioviruses.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on measles surveillance in the World Health Organisation African Region, 2020.

Introduction: following the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries imposed restrictions on public gatherings, health workers were repurposed for COVID-19 response, and public demand for preventive health services declined due to fear of getting COVID-19 in health care settings. These factors led to the disruption in health service delivery, including childhood immunization, in the first months of the pandemic. Measles surveillance supported with laboratory confirmation, is implemented in the African Region as part of the strategies towards attaining measles elimination.

The African Region early experience with structures for the verification of measles elimination - a review.

Substantial progress has been achieved in the last two decades with the implementation of measles control strategies in the African Region. Elimination of measles is defined as the absence of endemic transmission in a defined geographical region or country for at least 12 months, as documented by a well-performing surveillance system. The framework for documenting elimination outlines five lines of evidence that should be utilized in documenting and assessing progress towards measles elimination.