1. Confirmed Measles cases by province:
During the first 9 weeks of 2009, out of 8411 suspected measles cases reported in Iraq, 68 cases ( 1.0%) were reported by the 3 Northern governorates. The provinces of Anbar, Salahadin, Ninewa and Kirkuk, where containment operations were done early in 2008, reported 276 (3%) cases; the majority of cases in the containment group (235 or 85%) were reported from Mosul where only selective SIAs were carried out. The 4 Southern provinces of Basra, Missan, Thiqar and Muthana reported 887 (11%) of the total cases. The remaining 8 provinces in Central Iraq reported the remaining 85% of cases. It is clear that the outbreak is mainly concentrated in the central part of Iraq and is gradually moving to the South and North. As circulated by NML director, it is important that serum; urine and nasopharyngeal samples are timely and correctly collected from cases reported from the North as well as Salahadin, Anbar and Kirkuk. The remaining DoH where the outbreak is well established and many cases were confirmed by NML do not require the collecting of blood samples; however, the case investigation should be completed carefully for every case. It is also important to collect serum and other specimens from cases reported in children below 6 months of age.
Fig (1) Notified Measles by DoH, Iraq, first 9 weeks of 2009
