Health dept to conduct anti-measles campaign in all private schools as well

Kolkata: The state Health department has decided to conduct anti-measles campaign in all the private schools affiliated to various central boards in January, besides state government-aided educational institutions.

In the latest notification issued by the Health department to all the district magistrates and Chief Medical Officers of Health, all the private educational institutions will be included in the anti-measles campaign.

As per the guidelines issued by the state government to the district administration on November 5, awareness campaigns will also be carried out in all upper primary schools, secondary schools and Madrassa, apart from the private schools affiliated to various Central boards. Anti-measles campaigns would be undertaken

between 2-14 January next year.

They would be conducted simultaneously in both rural and urban areas.

According to a senior

Health department official, the state government under the National Health Mission has set a target to vaccinate over 2 crore children and teenagers belonging to the age groups between 9-15 within January next year under 'Measles Rubella Vaccination campaign'.

The vaccination would be conducted at all the primary health centres, block primary health centres, rural health centres, state general hospitals, sub-divisional hospitals, districts hospitals and also at various medical colleges and hospitals from November 29 to January 14 under the 'Measles Rubella Vaccination

campaign'.

The official said the vaccination would be conducted at free of cost across the state. All the district administrations have been asked to make necessary arrangements at all the centres so that the vaccination process can be done without any hassle.

Apart from school children, others from Anganwadi centres and those under Village Health Nutrition Day campaign would be administered anti-measles vaccine from

November 29 to

December 22.

One of the main objectives of the programme is to check the spread of the disease and also awareness among the people on how to prevent the disease. Apart from the DMs and the CMOHs, the Health department has also issued directives to the commissioner of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) giving a detailed outline on how to carry out the anti-measles campaign in the city.

"The main purpose behind the programme is to combat measles which is a killer disease among children. We have already conducted a review to check the preparedness of the officials at various levels. We are strengthening the campaign at villages as well where people are not always aware of the disease," a senior official of the Health

department said.