The Health Ministry’s measles immunization campaign will be boosted with the provision of more measles vaccines from Australia and New Zealand.

The mass measles immunization continues throughout the country in an effort to contain the spread of the disease.

The Health Ministry is also urging Fijians turning up to vaccination venues to produce proper identification documents to receive their vaccine shots.

With measles becoming a global concern, Health Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete says they’re doing all they can to ensure all Fijians are immunized.

“We are very grateful to the Australian government through DFAT as they’ve purchased another 200 000 vaccines for us which is arriving this weekend. We would also like to thank the New Zealand government for also purchasing another 200 000 vaccines which will arrive near to the end of next week.”

UN Special Rapporteur of Health Dainius Puras says he is impressed with Fiji’s consistent effort in containing the outbreak.

“Fiji is doing well with the management of the outbreak. I had an opportunity to spend many hours because I travelled together with the permanent secretary and I could see how much is done every day.”

While measles is still contained within Viti Levu, the Health Ministry is leaving no stone unturned in an effort to vaccinate those in outer islands.

“We are very blessed that for the last few years, the government through the Prime Minister, we’ve been very keen in procuring new state of the art modern ship. This are some of the platforms that we’re going to be using to go out into the islands and make sure that we believe are so important.”

There are currently 18 confirmed cases of measles in the country with a three-month old from Wailali Settlement in Wainadoi and a 17-month-old child from Wailekutu in Lami being the latest cases recorded on Friday.