The Maldives has been commended by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday for eliminating measles, a disease listed to be one of the six primary childhood killer diseases.

A statement from the WHO said that the Maldives has not reported any cases of patients having fallen ill from the disease transmitting locally since 2009, while also noting that Bhutan has managed to control the illness since 2012.

“Bhutan and Maldives have demonstrated how a highly contagious virus like measles can be eliminated. WHO commends them for this momentous public health achievement” the WHO’s statement said.

Maldives and Bhutan have become the first two nations in the South-East Asian region to eliminating measles.

“Both countries achieved and maintained high coverage of measles vaccination, despite geographical challenges. They also established strong laboratory-supported surveillance for measles, and have conducted detailed case investigation and tracking, right up to the very last case” Poonam Singh, the WHO’s regional director said.

The WHO, in its statement, highlighted the importance of vaccinations in averting fatalities from measles. Nothing that 620,000 patients have been kept from succumbing to the illness since 2016.

The measles laboratory network has been expanded from 23 laboratories in 2013 to 39 WHO accredited laboratories in 2016, the WHO further said.