Bhubaneswar: The state government Friday decided to launch a drive to eradicate measles and contain rubella.
Health and Family Welfare Secretary Pramod Kumar Meherda has written letters to the Indian Association of Pediatrics (Orissa), Indian Medical Association (Orissa) and other stakeholders seeking their cooperation for the drive.
The secretary said that Orissa will conduct the measles and rubella vaccination campaign in January 2018 as part of the national target of measles elimination and rubella control by 2020. The mass vaccination programme will be organized in the state for the first time with the focus on children from nine months to less than 15 years of age.
“For the campaign to be successful, each district and urban area must achieve a minimum 95 per cent of the target,” the secretary said. According to officials, the campaign will continue for five weeks. For the first two week the vaccination drive will run in all schools across the state, (both government and private), while for the next two weeks it will be taken up at community level in Anganwadi centres and health institutions.
The final week has been kept to catch up on the immunization of children who couldn’t be vaccinated during the first four weeks.
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