Dr. Chukwuma Anyaike, a Public Health Physician and the National Coordinator of the National Tuberculosis, Leprosy, and Buruli Ulcer Control Programme, emphasized that measles can lead to blindness in children and can affect the eyes in various ways.

He highlighted that measles is a dangerous infection that can affect children’s eyesight by targeting the retina and cornea.

Additionally, he mentioned that measles can cause conjunctivitis, also known as Apollo in Nigeria, which presents as redness and watery eyes. Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus that can spread easily through respiratory droplets.

Despite the availability of a safe and cost-effective vaccine, measles continues to cause significant mortality worldwide, with a substantial number of deaths reported in unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children under five years old.

In Nigeria, thousands of confirmed cases of measles and deaths due to the disease were reported in 2021, with a large proportion of affected children not receiving any measles vaccination. Dr. Anyaike emphasized that unimmunized and malnourished children are particularly vulnerable to measles.

The public health physician mentioned, “Measles is a viral infection caused by the measles virus. Measles is vaccine-preventable. If you look at children that have measles, you see their eyes swollen, discharging pus. And most of the time, the eyelids turn the other way around.

“So why does measles cause blindness? Measles affects the eyes in many ways. It affects the retina and cornea. That is why we emphasise that mothers should take their babies for vaccination. Measles vaccination is given to babies at the ninth month.”

The physician also blamed cases of measles being reported in the country on poor health seeking among Nigerians.

“But most of the mothers do not keep appointments. Poor nutrition also exposes children to the risk of measles.  Poor health-seeking behaviour is another problem.

Some of the people that you see now that are blind, got that blindness when they were young because their parents did not take them for immunization and also because it was not properly managed”, the physician mentioned.

He encouraged mothers to ensure their children receive the measles vaccination, emphasizing the significant social, mental, and economic consequences of living with blindness.

The World Health Organization reported that measles vaccination has prevented 57 million deaths from 2000 to 2022.

It was mentioned that measles can impact individuals of any age but is particularly prevalent in children. The American Academy of Ophthalmology warned that measles infections can damage the front or back of the eye, potentially leading to vision loss or blindness.

The academy highlighted that while measles is currently resurfacing as a threat in developed nations, it has historically been a major cause of childhood blindness globally.

“One study estimates that measles causes up to 60,000 cases of blindness a year globally. Poor access to measles vaccination and malnutrition often correlate with higher rates of blindness in the most affected countries”, it restated.

Nigeria has faced multiple measles outbreaks in recent years due to low levels of routine immunization coverage. The country implemented measles vaccination as part of the routine immunization schedule for nine-month-old children in 1978.

Data from the 2018 Demographic and Health Survey revealed that only 54% of children aged 12-23 months had received the measles vaccine, significantly below the threshold for herd immunity.

According to UNICEF, Nigeria accounts for 30% of the global population of unvaccinated children under the age of five.

A 2021 article published in the BMC Public Health journal titled ‘Measles outbreak in a complex emergency: estimating vaccine effectiveness and evaluating the vaccination campaign in Borno State, Nigeria, 2019’ reported that from January to May 2019, extensive measles outbreaks affected all 36 states in Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory.

By early May 2019, the authors noted more than 28,000 suspected cases of measles and 89 associated deaths due to the disease.