Only five days left for MR campaign in state

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 12

With only five days left for the Measles-Rubella (MR) vaccine drive to get over, the District Health Department is far beyond its target of number of children to be vaccinated.

At the start of the drive, the department had announced to vaccinate 12.55 lakh kids in the district, but only 8.5 lakh children were inoculated. Now, it seems impossible to reach the target in five days. The department is now planning to extend the drive by another one week.

District Immunisation Officer, Dr Jasbir Singh, said the video that went viral on social media during the beginning of the drive created lot of problems for the department.

People especially from the rural belt were reluctant to get their kids vaccinated after the video went viral. As per the video, kids were being made impotent by giving MR injection, he added.

“Now, during the mop-up drive we have been able to get results. Kids from schools, who had refused for the vaccination, are now being covered through out reach camps,” he said. “We have also involved religious places, including temples and gurdwaras, to urge the people to get their kids vaccinated. We also holding camps at these shrines,” he added.

“Besides, we have also involved private hospitals in the drive, which are vaccinating kids on their premises. All equipment has been given to them by the department,” he said.

“We might extend the drive by a week to achieve the target,” said Dr Jasbir Singh.

The MR campaign started on May 1 in Punjab. Already three phases of the drive have been completed in 13 states covering around seven to eight crore children with the vaccine safely while kids in Punjab are being covered in the Phase 4.

Measles and rubella are highly contagious viral diseases that are spread by contact with an infected person through coughing and sneezing. Infection with measles is followed by high fever, a rash that spreads over the body, cough, running nose and red watery eyes.

Rubella is a mild viral infection that occurs most often in children and young adults. Infection with rubella is followed by rash and low fever. Rubella infection during pregnancy can cause abortion, stillbirth and may lead to multiple birth defects in the newborn, including blindness, deafness and heart defects, known as congenital rubella syndrome (CRS).