Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has come up with a comprehensive roadmap to attain a remarkable 90% full immunisation coverage against measles and rubella by the end of December.
In a letter to all District Collectors and Municipal Commissioners on Friday, Secretary, Health and Family Welfare department Shalini Pandit, said the country is committed to eradication of Measles & Rubella (MR) by December, 2023. In this regard, the state has prepared a roadmap. One of its strategic objectives is to achieve at least 95% of MR 1 & MR 2 antigen vaccination in each district.
Pandit further said the 5th meeting of India Expert Advisory Group on Measles-Rubella (IEAG-MR) held in June reaffirmed the commitment for MR elimination by December 2023. It has been reiterated that for MR elimination, every district needs to achieve a coverage of 95% with both doses of MR vaccine with a NMNR Discard Rate of 2 per 100,000 population and zero transmission of the virus in the community.
The key recommendations of IEAG-MR are as follows:
- Aggressive implementation of strategies for strengthening of immunisation coverage, surveillance and outbreak response as outlined in the MR elimination roadmap.
- Intensified multi-sectoral coordination, participation of IMA, IAP, Rotary, Lions and Panchayati Raj etc.
- Well planned immunisation activities in urban & pen-urban areas to ensure no child is left unvaccinated.
- Utilise the opportunity of IMI 5.0 Drive for vaccinating all missed children till 5 years of age with MR Vaccine
“You are requested to review the routine immunisation activities and MR elimination programme at regular interval during district/city task force meeting to achieve and sustain more than 90% full immunisation coverage and achieve MR elimination by December in your district,” the Pandit said in the letter to the Collectors and Municipal Commissioners.
