Over 1 Cr Children Given MR Vaccine In Odisha In 4 Weeks

Bhubaneswar: More than one crore children have been given Measles-Rubella (MR) vaccination in Odisha in less than three weeks of the campaign which began on January 29 this year.

This was informed by a team of senior Health officials at a press briefing here on Tuesday.

The MR vaccination has been completed in 70,367 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 have played a major role in achieving more than one crore target.

While the school campaign was completed on February 17, the community level campaign started from February 19 will continue till March 16.

Till date, 37,160 outreach vaccination sessions has been conducted in villages. During the period, arrangements have been made at the Anganwadi Centers, different health centers and hospital to vaccinate children in the age group from 9 months to 5 years including non-school going and school dropouts.

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 household to make the people aware of the MR vaccine. They will also share with the parents of the children with a card relating to information on the nearest vaccination site. The drive will start from March 17 to ensure that every child is being vaccinated.

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.

Due to the MR vaccination campaign in the state, the first phase Pulse Polio drive will begin from April 15 to 17 while the second phase drive would begin from May 20 to 22. During the drive, children from 0-5 age group will be given two drops of oral polio vaccine.

In the first day of round, fixed sessions will be held at all health institutions, Anganwadi centres and during next two days, the team will visit each house to vaccinate the children who did not attend on the first day.