Despite all the initial hiccups, the Measles-Rubella vaccination campaign has been marching forward to achieve its target, and the success of this campaign can be gauged from the fact that, in 28 days of its launch, around 39 lakh children have been administered the MR vaccine in Punjab, said the state Health and Family Welfare Minister Brahm Mohindra on Tuesday.
He said that it was a herculean task for the Punjab Health Department to drive home the very necessity of this MR vaccine amidst echoic negative propaganda against the vaccination.
“The entire health paraphernalia stood up to the occasion and worked tirelessly to sensitize the general public, especially the parents and teachers, to achieve the desired result by bringing children forward for the vaccination,” he said.
Mohindra expressed confidence that campaign will get accelerated in the time to come and set target of MR vaccination would be achieved.
“The Department of Health and Family Welfare has rolled out the ‘Measles Rubella Vaccination Campaign’ on May 1, 2018, with the motive to vaccinate all children aged between nine months to less than 15 years in all districts of the State,” he said.
Congratulating teams, supervisors and higher authorities who are conducting the MR campaign in Punjab, Mohindra said that earlier some fake viral videos about MR campaign created doubts in the minds of parents, even then the people of state has expressed faith to get vaccinate their children under the MR campaign.
Mohindra told that to ensure coverage of more than 70 lakh children, Punjab Government has deployed 5200 vaccination teams having three members each and 1,733 supervisors to cover about 29,000 schools conducting nearly 59,000 vaccination sessions across the state.
He said that about 5,200 vaccinators, nearly 19,000 ASHAs and 25,000 Anganwadi workers have been trained. So far, teachers from about 29,000 schools have also been sensitized about the campaign.