Measles-Rubella vaccination to begin from next week in Delhi

The measles-rubella vaccination campaign will begin in the national capital from January 15 which will immunize nearly 55 lakh children, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Thursday.

The campaign will provide immunization to children in the age group of 9 months to less than 15 year across 11 districts of Delhi. The prime target, according to the ministry will be by sending teams to schools, preschools, school children from both government and private institutes and out of school children.

"The benefit of spreading the campaign via schools is that it can cover children whereas through community services, it would take time to locate children from every household," Dr. Pradeep Haldar, Deputy Commissioner, Immunization, Health Ministry told IANS.

For the campaign, the Delhi government will be assigning teams including Asha and Anganwadi workers along with a medical counsellor to cover the length and breadth of the state who will continue with vaccination process for four weeks and rework on missed out children for the next week.

"We want to complete the MR vaccination in Delhi by February 28. Along with Delhi, the campaign will also start in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. The vaccination process will also start soon in Sikkim, West Bengal and Rajasthan," Haldar added.

As per UNICEF, around 49,200 deaths occurred in 2015 in India owing to Measles-Rubella. The MR vaccination campaign was launched in 2017 which has so far covered nearly 20 crore children.

--IANS

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