Tenth meeting of the WHO South-East Asia Regional Verification Commission for measles and rubella elimination (SEA-RVC)
Location: Virtual
Date: 22-24 July 2025 Photo @ WHO-SEARO: Session at the tenth meeting of WHO SEA-RVC, July 2025
Participants: Almost 65 participants attended the meeting virtually. This included SEA-RVC members, chairs/representatives of National Verification Committees (NVCs), representatives from Ministries of Health, WHO country offices and UNICEF country offices across SEAR. and donors/partners.
Purpose: The purpose of the meeting was to review and verify progress made towards measles and rubella (MR) elimination by the countries of the WHO South-East Asia Region (SE Asia Region) based on the Framework for Verification of Measles and Rubella Elimination published in February 2020.
Details: The meeting was organized by WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO). Country progress reports submitted by the NVCs of ten Member States were reviewed for progress towards two essential criteria and five lines of evidence required to verify measles and rubella elimination.
Based on this careful review and interactions with NVC representatives, the Commission verified rubella as eliminated in Nepal and congratulated the country for this achievement.
The Commission also verified that both measles and rubella elimination were sustained in Bhutan, DPR Korea, Maldives, and Timor-Leste. For Sri-Lanka, the Commission verified sustained rubella elimination in the country and expressed appreciations on efforts made to contain the re-established transmission of measles in the country. The Commission categorized remaining countries as “endemic” for both measles and rubella transmission.
The Commission acknowledged significant progress made by countries in the Region towards the goal of achieving measles and rubella elimination, with all countries in an elimination mode. It also expressed concern regarding the achievement of 2026 regional elimination goal without urgent accelerated actions. Noting the set-back to the program due to current global geo-political situation and challenging financial landscape, the Commission urged the global community and partners to work towards a global goal and target date for MR elimination, and to garner political and resource commitment from the global community.
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Author: WHO South-East Asia Regional Office
Photo @ WHO-SEARO: Session at the tenth meeting of WHO SEA-RVC, July 2025