With about 49,000 children dying from measles annually across India, Punjab Government is initiating a ‘state-wide vaccination campaign against Measles-Rubella from May 1, 2018, as a part of the national strategy to eliminate Measles and control Rubella in the country.
“Already three phases of MR vaccination campaign have been completed in 13 states covering around seven-eight crore children with this vaccine safely, while Punjab is being covered in the firth phase,” said the state Health and Family Welfare Minister Brahm Mohindra.
“An estimated 75 lakh children, aged between nine months to less than 15 years, will be vaccinated in the campaign over a period of four to six weeks, and the vaccination will first be conducted in schools and later in community through outreach sessions,” he said adding that likewise Polio, it is now targeted to make state as well as country Measles and Rubella free by 2020.
Mohindra said that auto-disable syringes are used for vaccination of each child, and these syringes are rendered non-usable after single use. All the vaccinators are highly skilled health staffs who administer vaccinations to the children in routine immunization in large numbers regularly following the best injection and waste disposal practices, he said.
Talking about the road map to ensure coverage across the state, Mohindra said that 5,200 vaccination teams and 1,733 supervisors have been deployed to cover about 29,000 schools conducting nearly 59,000 vaccination sessions in all districts. So far, teachers from about 28,500 schools have been sensitized about the campaign.
Mohindra told that the campaign would be implemented by two strategies — school-based and community-based. “During school based campaign, all children in government, government aided, private, army schools, day care centers and crèches will be vaccinated. Similarly, during community-based campaign, all out of school children in age group of nine months to 15 years will be covered including children at orphanages, blind schools, deaf schools, juvenile homes, children of jail inmates and nomads,” he said.