Over 1 cr children given MR vaccination in Odisha

Over 1.1 crore children have been vaccinated under Measles-Rubella Vaccination campaign in last 20 days in Odisha, said an official on Tuesday.

The Measles-Rubella (MR) Vaccination campaign that started on January 29 has been completed in 70,367 schools, said Kamalakanta Das, state immunisation officer.

While the school campaign was completed on February 17, the community level campaign started from February 19 and will continue up to March 16. Till date, 37,160 outreach vaccination sessions have been conducted in villages, he added.

During this period, sessions are being conducted at the Anganwadi centres, different health centres and hospitals to vaccinate all children in 9-month to 5-year age group, as well as non-school going children and school left outs.

All districts are conducting the mop-up drive to vaccinate school children who are not vaccinated during school campaign. During the community campaign, the designated workers will visit each and every household to educate the importance of MR vaccine.

The mop-up drive will start from March 17 to ensure every child is being vaccinated.

Due to the MR vaccination campaign in the state, the Pulse Polio drive will be held from April 15-17 as the first round and April 20- 22 as the second round.

During the drive, children from 0 to 5 years age group will be given two drops of oral polio vaccine, said Braja Kishore Brahma, Director Health Services.

--IANS

cd/qd/dg