Bengaluru/New Delhi: To protect children from childhood diseases measles and rubella, the government on Sunday launched a nationwide vaccination campaign.
Under the campaign, children aged between nine months and 15 will be administered the measles-rubella vaccine (MR-VAC). The campaign will start in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and Goa. It will be launched in Goa on February 7.
Following this, the vaccine will be introduced to the Universal Immunisation Programme, replacing the currently given two doses of measles vaccine at nine-12 months and 16-24 months of age. UNICEF and World Health Organisation are providing technical support to the programme.
The government is committed to eradicating measles and rubella, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Faggan Singh Kulaste said at the launch event.
He urged parents, caregivers, teachers, community leaders, anganwaadi workers and other front-line health workers to become active part of the campaign.
“We have taken this as an achievable target. This shall be taken up in a mission mode and rolled out in partnership with states, NGOs [non-government organisations] and development partners such as WHO, UNICEF, Gates Foundation, Lions Club, IPA, IMA, etc. In the nationwide campaign, the Ministry will cover 41 crore [410 million] children in the age group of nine months to 15 years, Kulaste said.
Amid rumours on social media that the vaccine may cause serious side-effects, Deputy Commissioner, Immunisation, Health Ministry Pradeep Haldar said the vaccine is completely safe. It is being made by the Serum Institute of India, which is the world’s largest producer of the vaccine and provides it to most countries in Africa and Asia.
“The vaccine is completely safe and MMR has been used extensively in private set ups for long. One in 10 lakhs [one million] may develop [an] allergy but for that we have already put in place a mechanism if there is any such event,” he said.
The guidelines of administering the vaccination has been sent to the states and as per the protocol, after reconstitution, the vaccine has to be given within four hours. Chances of contamination increases after every four hours, Haldar said.
Measles and Rubella are only preventable through vaccination. There is no specific treatment for the diseases, UNICEF India, Chief of Health, Yaron Wolman said.
The Measles Rubella vaccination is an essential investment by the Centre in children’s lives, Wolman said.
All children aged between nine months and less than 15 years will be given a single shot of Measles-Rubella (MR) vaccination irrespective of their previous measles/rubella vaccination status or measles/rubella disease status, the official said.
The vaccine will be provided free-of-cost across states from session sites at schools, health facilities and outreach session sites. The measles vaccine is currently provided under Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP). However, rubella vaccine will be a new addition, he said.
Measles, a highly contagious disease, makes a child vulnerable to life-threatening complications such as pneumonia, diarrhoea and brain infection. Globally, in 2015, measles killed an estimated 1,34,200 children mostly under five years of age. In India, it killed an estimated 49,200 children, the Health Ministry official said.
Rubella is generally a mild infection, but has serious consequences if infection occurs in pregnant women, causing congenital rubella syndrome (CRS), which is a cause of public health concern, he said.
CRS is characterised by congenital anomalies in the foetus and newborns, affecting the eyes, ears, brain and heart defects.
In 2010, an estimated 1,03,000 children were born with CRS globally, of which around 47,000 children, i.e. 46 per cent were in South-East Asia, the official said.
The number of Measles cases in the country saw a decline with the introduction of second dose of measles vaccine in 2010.
However, those gains need to be supplemented, and in order to further reduce the burden, the country is going to carry out the Measles-Rubella campaign.
Measles immunisation directly contributes to the reduction of under-five child mortality, and with the combination of rubella vaccine, will control rubella and prevent CRS in the country, he said.
Union Ministers Sadananda Gowda and Ananth Kumar, Karnataka Medical Education minister Sharanaprakash Rudrappa Patil, state Health Minister K R Ramesh Kumar and actor Ramesh Arvind were present on the occasion.
An awareness campaign about the vaccine initiative was also launched.
