The state Health Department in Punjab has vaccinated around 39 Lakh children against a target of 70 Lakh, under its ongoing Measles Rubella (MR) vaccine campaign.

In a Press statement on Tuesday, the Health and Family Welfare minister Brahm Mohindra said that it was a herculean task for the department to drive home the very necessity of this MR vaccine amidst echoic negative propaganda against MR vaccination.

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He said that whole health paraphernalia stood up to the occasion and worked tirelessly to sensitise the general public especially the parents and teachers to achieve the desire result by bringing children forward for the MR vaccination.

“Till date we are more than satisfied that MR vaccination is moving forward to achieve its target. The campaign will get accelerated in the time to come and set target of MR vaccination would be achieved,” Mohindra said.

The minister said that the department had started ‘Measles Rubella Vaccination Campaign’ on 1 May with the motive to vaccinate all children aged between nine months to less than 15 years in all districts of state.

“Earlier some fake viral videos about the MR campaign created doubts in the minds of parents, even then people of state has expressed faith to get vaccinate their children under the MR Campaign”, he said.

Mohindra said that as part of national strategy to eliminate Measles and control Rubella in the country, all children aged between nine months to less than 15 years would be vaccinated regardless of previous vaccination with history of measles or rubella like illness.

The vaccination is first being conducted in schools and later in community through outreach sessions. Mohindra told that in order to ensure coverage of more than 70 Lakh children, state government has been deployed 5,200 vaccination teams having three members in each team and 1,733 supervisors to cover about 29,000 schools conducting nearly 59,000 vaccination sessions across the state.

He also said that about 5,200 vaccinators, nearly 19,000 Accredited social health activists (ASHAs) and 25,000 Anganwadi workers have been trained.
So far, teachers from about 29,000 schools have also been sensitised about the campaign, added the Minister.

He said that like Polio it is now targeted to make our country Measles and Rubella free by 2020.

An estimated nearly 49,000 children die from measles annually, making it one of the leading causes of child deaths in India.