Mumbai: Measles vaccines for homeless kids too, says BMC

A child is vaccinated for measles at Govandi on Thursday

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) wants to reach out to every child in order to protect her/him from measles, and to ensure this, it has asked all wards to collect information about homeless kids.

It has only been a few months since Mumbaikars came out of the grip of COVID-19 but the relief was for a short period because the city has since witnessed multiple outbreaks of measles. So far the city has reported 68 outbreaks and 482 cases. Unfortunately, 16 kids have also lost their lives due to severe infection. To curb the spread of measles and protect children, the BMC has focused on vaccination. This is besides routine immunisation

A senior official from the civic health department said on Friday, "For the BMC, every child is important whether she/he is from a well-to-do family or a poor one. Immunization is the right of every child, but due to lack of awareness or ignorance, children who are homeless and living under bridges and on footpaths are often left behind. We have asked all the wards to get the estimated figures of such children so that we can start their vaccination. We are also focusing on the population which keeps migrating for work, for example those who work at construction sites. Once we identify the children we will organize vaccination camps next to their locality, and our community health workers will bring these kids to the camps."

Also read: Mumbai: Thirty-six per cent of beds occupied by measles patients

Another civic health official added that the immunisation camps will take place in the evening because most of these kids beg or sell stuff at traffic signals, or many parents are busy with their work in the daytime and get free in the evening. There is no adverse reaction reported so far so parents must not have any doubts about the vaccine."

So far the BMC has vaccinated 10,878 kids with MR 1 vaccine and 8,973 children with the MMR vaccine through routine immunization. After the multiple outbreaks in November the BMC started additional immunization in which 15,850 kids received the MR 1 vaccine and 9,576 kids received the MMR vaccine. In a special campaign started on Thursday as per the direction of the state government, 281 kids took MR 1 while 198 kids turned up for the MMR jab.

State ranks third in measles cases

Maharashtra ranks third in the number of measles cases in the country after Bihar and Jharkhand. Dr Veena Dhawan, additional commissioner, Central Health and Family Welfare Department, admitted that the pace of measles-rubella vaccination slowed down during the pandemic. She spoke online at a two-day media workshop on Measles-Rubella vaccination organised by the Union Department of Family Welfare and Health and UNICEF at Vileparle on Friday.