Bengal to hold month-long vax drive against measles & rubella from Nov 21
KOLKATA: State government is going to conduct a-month-long vaccination programme against measles and rubella starting from November 21. Measles and rubella (MR) vaccination was badly hit in the past two years due to Covid pandemic.
As the Covid infection has been brought fully under control, the state health department now has laid emphasis on carrying out a full-fledged campaign to cover the maximum number of children under the vaccination.
The department has already sent a directive in this regard to all the District Magistrates and Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMoHs) in the districts. All the districts have been asked to form a district core group with the DM as the chairperson. Police superintendent in each district, ADMs (health) and the school inspectors will be in the group. The main purpose is to ensure not a single child in that age group is not left out.
The MR Vaccine will be administered free of cost to all children aged between 9 months and 15 years from schools, community as well as health facilities across the state. The programme has been included in the government's universal immunisation programme replacing the old measles vaccine for quite some time.
The MRV Campaign was launched with the aim of eliminating measles — a killer disease among children and also to control Rubella, the cause of serious neurological and cardiological defects among newborns if infection occurs during pregnancy.
Two doses of measles vaccine are given at 9-12 months and 16-24 months.
According to Health department sources, the vaccination will continue till December 24. State government is taking all possible initiatives to administer MR vaccine on the children who reside on the pavements apart from the school children. Emphasis has been laid on the inclusion of children in the tribal areas under tea gardens in north Bengal.
A senior pathologist Dr Gopeswar Mukherjee said: "Measles is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by measles virus. Symptoms usually develop 10-12 days after exposure to an infected person," he further added: "Rubella is generally a mild infection but has serious consequences if infection occurs in pregnant women in the first three months, causing congenital Rubella syndrome (CRS). CRS is characterized by congenital anomalies in the fetus and newborns affecting the eyes, ears, brain and even heart, causing a huge socio economic pressure on the families."
