Measles outbreak and response--Fiji, February-May 2006.

In September 2005, the 37 countries and areas of the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Region (WPR) established a goal to eliminate measles in the region by 2012. After multiple outbreaks in 1996 and 1997, measles supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) in 1997 and 1998 resulted in apparent interruption of measles transmission in WPR. Since then, importations have resulted in limited outbreaks in French Polynesia and Guam, a large outbreak in the Marshall Islands in 2003, and an outbreak in Fiji during February-May 2006. This report describes the epidemiologic findings, public health response, and potential causes of the 2006 outbreak that produced 132 measles cases in Fiji (2006 estimated population: 832,432), the most populous country in the South Pacific.