Measles-Rubella vaccination campaign launched in Jammu

The Measles-Rubella Vaccination campaign was launched across Jammu district on Monday to administer vaccines to over 3.85 lakh children falling in the 9 months to 15 years age group.

District Development Commissioner Ramesh Kumar inaugurated the campaign at the Government Girls High School Gandhi Nagar here, an official spokesman said.

The measles-rubella campaign marks the introduction of the rubella vaccine in India's childhood immunisation programme for the first time, he added.

The campaign will continue till October 20 and will cover around 38 lakh children in Jammu and Kashmir.

In Jammu district, vaccination will be given to over 3.85 lakh children, including 1.13 lakh in urban and 2.72 lakh in rural areas. Around 2.89 lakh children in the targeted age group, including 0.81 lakh in urban areas and 2.07 lakh in rural areas, will be covered in schools, while an estimated 0.96 lakh out-of-school beneficiaries of the district, including 0.32 lakh in urban areas and 0.64 lakh in rural areas, will be covered through outreach service, he added.

It was informed that schools across Jammu district have coordinated with the chief medical officer (CMO) and prepared a schedule for vaccination in each institution.

According to the Health department, 7,751 school children and 211 outreach beneficiaries were covered on the first day of the campaign in the district.

Meanwhile, Measles-Rubella Vaccination campaign was also launched by Deputy Commissioner of Poonch Rahul Yadav at a function organised at the Christ school under the supervision of Chief Medical Officer Dr Mumtaz Bhatti.

As per official estimates, Poonch has 1.7 lakh children in the targeted age group. More than 85 per cent of the children are to be vaccinated in government schools, -private Schools and madrassas, he said.