MR vaccine drive at pvt hospitals from tomorrow

Hyderabad: Following panic that was created with regard to the administering of Measles and Rubella Vaccination (MRV) for children aged between 9 and 15 years, many private school managements have backed out and are not willing to hold vaccination camps on the school premises.

As there was a lukewarm response from school authorities, the state health department has now found an alternative method to give the vaccine by organising camps in private hospitals from Wednesday in the city.

The Union government’s National Measles Elimination and Rubella Control Programme, the MRV campaign started on August 17 and will end on September 25. Rubella is a mild viral infection affecting both the children as well as adults. When Rubella infection occurs during pregnancy, it can cause severe lifelong disabilities (Congenital Rubella Syndrome) causing blindness, deafness and congenital heart diseases.

According to sources, the major reason for the reluctance from the corporate and private schools was that if any one student dies of vaccination, the institution’s reputation would get tarnished. As a result, the MR vaccination achieved only 50 percent of the target in Hyderabad.

However, to evade responsibility, the schools’ managements have been issuing consent letters to parents. After a brainstorming session, the health department officials decided to organise the vaccination camps in private hospitals and clinics across the city. With this, the parents would bring their children for vaccination. In fact, the camps would be open on holidays and Sundays also.

Despite several hurdles since the rollout of the vaccination, as many as 6,22,86 69 children were administered the vaccine, said Dr G Srinivas Rao, chief programme officer, National Health Mission (NHM) and chief immunisation officer, while speaking to The Hans India here on Monday.