The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE BAHAMAS is at risk of measles, a health expert has warned, because of a drop in the vaccination rate below the levels needed for herd immunity.

In 2003, the vaccination rate was between 86 and 87 percent, falling under the 95 percent needed for widespread protection against diseases.

Gina Rose, national coordinator of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), said we must ensure children are vaccinated to lower that risk. She added that children under five are the most vulnerable.

She said it was likely that any new case in The Bahamas would originate from someone entering the country with measles. The Bahamas’ last measles case was in 2019, with the patient being a child visitor.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness urged young adults, seniors, parents, healthcare and tourism workers, port officers, and travellers to review their immunisation records and ensure they have received two doses of the MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) vaccine, despite no reported measles cases in The Bahamas.

Ms Rose’s comments follow a measles outbreak in US, with an unvaccinated adult in New Mexico becoming the second death after a February death of an unvaccinated six-year-old in Texas.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a total of 222 measles cases in 12 jurisdictions in 2025: Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, and Washington. 

Bahamian health officials said vaccination rates in 2023 show coverage hovering between 86 and 87 percent, while pre-pandemic rates were around 90 percent. Ms Rose said the official estimates for this year have not yet been released.

She added this decline happened before COVID, but explained officials do not have a concrete answers yet for drop in vaccination.

“It would have started pre-COVID, we started seeing a decline. So back from 2018 we were like at 89 percent so we’ve been less than 95 percent for a little while, for a few years. But what we do know is that we’ve come across a lot more persons now who are opting not to have their children vaccinated.

“Some of the reason, maybe, has been that they don’t see the disease in the community, so they don’t see the need to vaccinate the children. Some people may say, let your body fight the disease and then you have immunity that way. Then you have persons who are conspiracy theorists and they think that certain people who are trying to depopulate the world and kill, you know, us through vaccinations or causing to have abortion and miscarriages.

“I think one of the other things that we had seen is there were persons who would have expressed that we have a lot more cases of ADHD in the country and they attribute it to vaccinations. But if that was the case then a lot more of us should have been autistic from we were vaccinated earlier on.”

She said the majority of the population, born 1957 to present, needs to be vaccinated to ensure protection against the disease. She added two doses of the vaccine provides adequate protection.

“The children that are under five are the most vulnerable or most at risk, so they’re the person who we need to target and make sure that they have their doses of the vaccine,” she said.

She added that measles is very contagious, and one person could infect nine or ten people they come into contact with who are not vaccinated.