On Monday, 17 November 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that Cabo Verde, Mauritius and Seychelles have successfully eradicated measles and rubella, becoming the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to do so. The declaration followed a review by the WHO’s Regional Verification Commission, which met in October in Johannesburg and confirmed that all three island states had interrupted endemic transmission of both viruses for more than 36 months while maintaining robust surveillance systems.
WHO Regional Director for Africa, Mohamed Janabi, hailed the achievement as a defining milestone in Africa’s public health journey, emphasising the crucial role of prioritising vaccines and prevention. Cabo Verde’s Health Minister Jorge Figueiredo underscored the decades-long threat the diseases posed to children and highlighted the collaborative effort among governments, health workers, communities and international partners that made the breakthrough possible. Cabo Verde last recorded a measles case in 1999 and rubella in 2010, while Mauritius has seen no measles cases since 2019 and Seychelles contained its last measles outbreak in 2020, with no rubella cases since 2016.
The WHO noted that the three island nations now join 133 countries globally verified to have eliminated both diseases. Measles and rubella, highly contagious airborne viruses, remain preventable through vaccination. Measles can cause severe complications and death among children, while rubella poses serious risks of irreversible birth defects when contracted during pregnancy.