FROM THURSDAY, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will start inoculating children between the age group of 6 months to five years with the additional dose of the measles and rubella (MR) vaccine in areas hit by the measles outbreak, as per the directive of the Union Health Ministry.
There are nearly six lakh children in the age group of nine months to five years in Mumbai. The BMC has identified 1,34,833 children in the same group, who will be given the extra dosage of MR vaccine in 33 health posts in areas that have reported the most number of measles cases. Along with that, out of 30,000 children aged between six and nine months residing in Mumbai, 3,496 children will be vaccinated from the same affected wards where measles cases in the age group are above 10 percent of the total cases.
Amid an increase in the number of measles cases, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had asked states and union territories to administer one additional dose of MR vaccines to all children, aged 9 months to 5 years, in vulnerable areas.
“Administering one additional dose of Measles and Rubella Containing Vaccines (MRCVs) to all children aged 9 months to 5 years in vulnerable areas (geographies which are showing recent increase in numbers of measles cases) should be identified by the state government/UT administration in ‘Outbreak Response Immunisation (ORl)’ mode,” stated the order issued by the ministry.
The ministry also instructed states and UTs to administer one dose of MRCVs to all children aged 6 months to 9 months in those areas where measles cases in the age group are above 10 percent of the total cases.
In Mumbai, a total of 52 outbreaks of measles have been reported this year. As of November 28, 303 confirmed cases of measles have been identified in Mumbai, with 14 deaths, eight of them confirmed due to measles.
On Monday, 78 new admissions in hospitals and one death due to the infection were reported. According to the BMC, the victim was a one-year-old child who was unvaccinated. The child had a congenital heart disease (Ventricular Septal Defect and Patent Ductus Arteriosus). Two weeks earlier, she was admitted to a private hospital for a month for treatment.
