Inter-country Meeting on Verification of Measles and Rubella Elimination in the WHO European Region, 23-24 October 2012, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

In order to start documenting progress towards measles and rubella elimination in the WHO European Region, the Regional Office developed a framework for the verification process. In January 2012, the Regional Verification Commission for Measles and Rubella Elimination in the European Region (RVC) adopted the document as the guiding tool for the process of verification.

The RVC recommended the establishment of a National Verification Committee (NVC) in each Member State (MS) of the Region. It also suggested a standard template to be used by all MS to document relevant data on the elimination process in the form of an Annual Status Report (ASR). The structured format of this report will facilitate the determination of the data’s validity, completeness, representativeness and consistency among the different sources of information. The final format of the ASR will be made available to all Member States by end 2012.

The first in a series of inter-country meetings of the RVC with NVC chairpersons and national measles and rubella focal points on verification of elimination took place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, from 23 to 24 October 2012. Twelve countries (the newly independent states) were represented at this meeting. The main objectives were to update the newly established NVCs with the framework of the verification process of measles and rubella elimination in the WHO European Region, to review performance indicators of measles and rubella elimination and availability of relevant data from the participating MS. The first report from NVCs is expected by 31 July 2013; the following reports will produced on an annual basis.

The meeting marked a milestone towards the elimination of measles and rubella in the Region. Nine of twelve participating countries have already established their NVC. The next step is to formerly initiate the verification and documentation of the achievements made using the ASR. A similar joint RVC-NVC meeting(s) on the documentation and verification process is intended for the remaining MS of the Region.