Maharashtra begins state-wide special measles vaccination drive

The Maharashtra health department, on Thursday, started a special state-wide measles immunisation drive to cover all unvaccinated children. Last month, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) declared a measles epidemic in Mumbai. Over the last couple of days, the BMC has focused on increasing the vaccine coverage in the outbreak areas, even as new areas kept added to the list each day.

On November 15, civic officials said that 20,000 children in areas where measles outbreaks were prevalent at the time were unvaccinated. In the past month, the number of outbreaks in nine wards of the city has gone from fourteen to sixty-three outbreaks in eighteen wards. Head of the state measles task force Dr Subhash Salunkhe said that efforts should be made to reach all children who have missed the vaccines. “This includes kids up to 15 years of age. Children whose parents either have no record of their immunisation status or don’t know anything about it need to be considered unvaccinated,” he added.  

The BMC is also undertaking an active search of cases by conducting house-to-house surveys to identify cases of measles. They are administering vitamin A to children in affected areas and special care is being taken to identify and help children suffering from malnutrition. The death toll due to the viral disease since January 1, 2022 remained unchanged at eight. A day before, zero new cases were reported in the city. As many as 46 children were admitted to city hospital during the day, and 35 children were discharged. Maharashtra has reported 1,038 measles cases as of December 13 since the start of the year while the death toll stands at 20.