New Delhi: Mahima Prasad -- the 15-year-old from Badatola village of Khurda district in Odisha -- loves his “Teen Warrior” tag and is among 20-odd children of his school and hundreds others across the state who took part in a battle against the deadly Measles Rubella in a massive vaccination drive.“Our job is to encourage other children to participate in the campaign and make parents aware of the benefits of taking the vaccine protection for their kids,” said Prasad, sporting a T-shirt that had a tagline: “I am a Measles Rubella Warrior”.
The MR warriors joined health workers and anganwadi workers at rallies and processions taken out to promote a vaccination drive that is being organised in Odisha since January 29. It is part of a nation-wide effort, aiming at covering 1.13-crore children between the age of nine months to 15 years across the state. So far, 1.05-crore children have been vaccinated during the campaign, said Dr Kamalakanta Das, State Immunisation Officer.Across the country, it is a bigger battle. It covers approximately 41-crore children, and is part of the government’s plan to eliminate measles by 2020.“It’s such a mammoth project. The entire society has to be sensitised about the issue,” said Dr Das. In Odisha alone, nearly 6,900 women health workers and 47,000 Asha workers and 71,129 Anganwadi workers have been engaged in for the drive.
A multi-pronged communication strategy has been adopted to reach out to the last child—ranging from traditional drum beating, street plays and rallies to using celebrities for promotions to messaging on the social media. Messages and slogans are played on FM radio and celebrities and filmstars are asked to speak on the issue of vaccination.Internationally acclaimed sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik carved out a beautiful sand sculpture on the Puri beach with the message: “Be wise, get your child fully immunised.”
Dr Das said both government and private schools have been roped in to promote the programme too.Prasad’s school, Carmel Public School was one of the centres for vaccines administration. Principal Korumelli Raju said the school raised the issue at Parent-Teacher meetings and sent them circulars and SMSes to encourage them to join the drive.Speaking about the twin diseases that the vaccine targets, Dr Das said that while Measles is a highly infectious disease and can cause disability and is a leading cause of deaths among children, Rubella or German Measles if infected during pregnancy can lead to still births, miscarriages and birth defects like deafness, hole in heart, cataract and mental retardation.
“Though there is no specific cure for measles or rubella, these can be prevented by vaccination,” he said.About the roadblocks that they encounter during the drive, Ms Manadarshini Mishra, Block Programme Manager in Jatani of Khurdha district, said that several sections of the community were apprehensive about the adverse effects of the vaccine. “Apart from personalised counselling, we also approached the village elders and the faith leaders and assured them that the MR vaccine was very safe and effective and has been in use for the last 46 years worldwide.”But the most challenging problem was to counter the misleading information that were circulated through messages and videos on WhatsApp, she recalled. “Ours is an urban block and most people are avid mobile phone users. And when they receive such messages—they treat them as gospel truth. So we have to off-set such propaganda by sending out videos and SMSes with right kind of messages,” she said.
Multiple stakeholders including the National Health Mission and the Odisha Government functionaries, UNICEF, WHO, development partners, Lion’s Club and professional bodies like the Indian Association of Pediatrics, Indian Medical Association, etc, too are at work to strive for maximum coverage during the campaign.
Though there has been a substantial drop in measles deaths in India-- 17,250 measles cases in 2016, down from 30,168 in 2015—far too many children are still missing their first measles vaccine dose, according to UNICEF. Around 2.9-million children still remain without vaccination against the disease, making India one of the top six countries adding to this burden. Hence, to ensure more coverage, the Government launched the MR vaccination campaign in a phased manner across the country, said Dr Das.
Nearly 6.7-crore children have been vaccinated in 13 States in the first two phases and Odisha has been included in the third phase. After the campaign, the MR vaccine will become a part of routine immunisation and will replace measles vaccine, currently given at 9-12 months and 16-24 months of age of child.
The first phase of Measles-Rubella vaccination campaign has been successfully completed in five states, namely, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Lakshadweep and Puducherry while the second round has taken place in eight states/UTs (Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Telangana and Uttarakhand).(UNI)