FIGHT AGAINST MEASLES-RUBELLA STARTS IN LUDHIANA

AROUND 12.55 LAKH CHILDREN TO BE VACCINATED IN THREE-WEEK LONG CAMPAIGN-DEPUTY COMMISSIONER

LUDHIANA, MAY 1, 2018: With an aim to eliminate Measles and control of congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) in the country, a district level vaccination campaign against Measles-Rubella was kick-started by deputy commissioner (DC) Pradeep Kumar Agrawal on Tuesday from International Public School, Sandhu Nagar of the city where the children aged between 9 months to less than 15 years were vaccinated by health teams.

An estimated 12.55 lakh children will be vaccinated in Ludhiana and the vaccination will be carried out in schools during first two-weeks and later in the community through outreach sessions.

Giving a call to the people, the deputy commissioner asked them to participate positively in the campaign and motivated health officials to ensure not a single child between this age group, be left.

During inaugural session, DC took a keen view of the entire vaccination campaign and appreciated the health teams. He also talked with school children and shared light moments with them.

Meanwhile, Civil Surgeon Ludhiana Dr. Parvinder Pal Singh Sidhu said that already three phases of MR vaccination Campaign have been completed in 13 states covering around 7-8 crore children with this vaccine safely while Punjab is being covered in Phase 4.

Sidhu further said that Auto-disable syringes are used for vaccination of each child. These syringes are rendered non-usable after a single use. All the vaccinators are highly skilled health workers who administer vaccinations to the children in routine immunization in large numbers regularly following the best injection and waste disposal practices.

Talking about the roadmap to ensure coverage across the district, District Immunization Officer (DIO) Dr. Jasbir Singh said that. 488 vaccination teams and 163 supervisors have been deployed to cover about 2989 schools conducting nearly 4656 vaccination sessions in the district.

Giving details about the Measles-Rubella, he said that Measles is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus and an estimated nearly 49,000 children die from measles its related complications annually, making it one of the leading causes of child deaths in India. He said that measles can be prevented by immunizing children with two doses of measles vaccine, which is safe and effective.

Singh said that Rubella is also another infectious yet mild viral illness affecting both children and adults that can cause death and disabilities in the new-born if an unprotected pregnant woman gets infected with rubella virus in early pregnancy.

He further said that it also has the potential to cause abortions, stillbirths and severe birth defects known as congenital rubella syndrome (CRS), including deafness and blindness in the new-born child.

He stated that the Goal of MR campaign is to accelerate population immunity by reaching 100 percent target children with MR vaccine that will reduce cases and deaths from measles and disabilities from Congenital Rubella Syndrome. He said that likewise Polio, it is now targeted to make state as well as country Measles and Rubella free by 2020.

He told that the campaign would be implemented by three strategies: School-based community through outreach session based and SVEEP activities.

He said that during school-based campaign all children in Government, Government aided, Private, Army schools, Day Care centers and Crèches shall be vaccinated. Similarly, during the community-based campaign, all out of school children in age group of 9 months to 15 years shall be covered including children in outreach sessions and SVEEP activities.

On the occasion, Assistant Civil Surgeon Dr. Manjeet Singh, WHO SMO Dr. Gagan Sharma, District Mass Media Officer Harjinder Singh and others were present.