Measles – Rubella Vaccination campaign in Odisha; More than one Crore children vaccinated within 19 days

Bhubaneswar: The Measles – Rubella (MR) Vaccination campaign started on 29th January 2018 in the State. On 26th February (20th Day), 1, 13,080 children vaccinated & total achievement till date is 1, 01, 73,545. The MR vaccination has been completed in 70,367 numbers of schools. The 47,689 ASHAs, 71,129 AWWs, 8665 Health Workers and State & district Nodal Officers from Health, School & Mass Education, W & CD, ST, SC Development, Panchayati Raj, Housing & urban Development Department play a crucial role in achieving more than one crore target. The school campaign is completed on 17th February 2018. Now, the Community level campaign started from 19th February 2018 and will continue up to 16th March 2018. Till date, 37,160 outreach vaccination sessions conducted in villages. During this period, sessions is being done at the Anganwadi Centers, different health centers & hospital to vaccinate all 9 months to 5 year children, non-school going children and school left outs. All districts have re-planned and conducting mop up drive to vaccinate school children who are not vaccinated during school campaign. During the community campaign, the ASHA & AWW will visit to each & every household to educate the importance MR vaccine and will share the parent information – cum – invitation card along with information on the nearest vaccination site. The mop up drive will start from 17th March 2018 to ensure every child is being vaccinated.
Due to the MR vaccination campaign in the State, The Pulse Polio drive will held from 15th to 17th April 2018 as first round and 20th to 22nd may as second round. During the drive, children from 0 to 5 Years age group will be given two drops of oral polio vaccine. In the first day of round, fixed sessions will held all health institutions, Anganwadi centers etc and during next two days, the team will visit household to vaccinate children, who did not attend on the first day.
Dr. Brajakishore Brahma, Director, Health Services, Odisha, Dr. Kamalakanta Das, State Immunization Officer and DR. Tapas Kumar Patra, Deputy Director (Immunization) briefed the Media on achievement of the MR vaccination campaign.