Nordic countries working together to sustain measles and rubella elimination
The Finnish national verification committee for measles and rubella elimination officially joined the Scandinavian Verification Committee, representing Denmark, Norway and Sweden, on 4 December 2019 in Helsinki, Finland. This development will strengthen the Nordic countries’ collaboration in assessing measles and rubella surveillance and immunization data.
Based on previous experiences of collaboration between public health institutions in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, independent expert committees in each of the countries joined forces in 2014 to form the Scandinavian Verification Committee. With the addition of Finland, the Committee now consists of officially appointed experts in epidemiology, virology, infectious diseases and paediatrics from 4 Nordic countries, and has accordingly been renamed the Nordic Verification Committee (NoVC).
The main role of each country team in the NoVC is to review the annual national reports of another Nordic country represented by the Committee. This review follows a structure common to all the countries and allows for transparent and independent assessment. It also facilitates a better understanding of the methods used in these countries to reach and maintain disease elimination goals. The national reports and NoVC conclusions on whether the countries have achieved or sustained elimination of measles and/or rubella are presented to the Regional Verification Commission for Measles and Rubella Elimination (RVC) in spring every year. The RVC then reviews the evidence and conclusions of national committees throughout the Region and makes its own independent evaluation of the elimination status of each of the 53 countries in the Region.
Preserving gains
The countries represented by the NoVC have robust immunization programmes, adequate surveillance systems and similarities in their health systems. All 4 countries in the NoVC have been verified as having eliminated measles, and 3 rubella. The few measles cases reported annually across the subregion are a result of measles virus importation, followed by only limited circulation thanks to high population immunity and rapid outbreak response activities. While measles cases for the WHO European Region as a whole increased sharply in 2018 and 2019, the 4 NoVC countries together reported fewer than 75 cases for 2018 and 60 for January–October 2019 (data received by WHO as of 29 November 2019).
The participation of national experts in the NoVC is voluntary, and without remuneration. Annual meetings of the committee are held in late autumn to discuss the measles and rubella epidemiology in each country and surveillance and vaccination programme activities. The 2020 NoVC annual meeting is planned to take place in Oslo, Norway. Annual reports from the national immunization programmes are reviewed in early spring.
