Mumbai: Eknath Shinde asks administration to rope in religious heads to create awareness on measles vaccination to bust myths and misconceptions

Amid rising cases of measles in Mumbai, Chief Minister Mr Eknath Shinde on Thursday reviewed the situation and asked the administration to increase the pace of the vaccination and instructed the health department and all civic bodies to work vigilantly to curb the infection.

He said that BMC has already vaccinated around 12,000 children as a preventive measure. He asked the administration to take the help of religious heads for the creation of awareness for vaccination to bust myths and misconceptions about immunisation in the communities.

He asked the administration to bring down the number of deaths due to measles to zero.

Mr Shinde visited Kasturba Hospital and met the patients and their relatives who were undergoing treatment for measles in Mumbai city. About 164 children in Mumbai were infected and 61 are being treated in the Kasturbhai Hospital.

Mr Shinde said that it is estimated that the outbreak occurred in children due to non-vaccination against measles.

‘’The system of BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation and Public Health Department has been alerted in this regard. BMC has started over 900 vaccination centres. Awareness is being created in all the related fields about giving vaccines to children who are away from vaccination. Important and prominent persons are being contacted from the representatives there. Efforts are being made to increase the vaccination rate. On the other hand, emphasis is being placed on taking vitamin tablets and all necessary measures to build immunity in children,’’ he added.

CM also instructed the concerned officers to give special attention to hospitalised measles patients and also augment measles surveillance efforts to immunise those who have been left out.

Measles situation in Maharashtra

There have been 26 outbreaks of measles in the state of which 14 were in Mumbai, 7 in Bhiwandi and 5 in Malegaon municipal corporation area. According to the public health department, 8 municipal wards in Mumbai have been affected by measles and most outbreaks (5) were seen in M East ward followed by 3 in the L ward.

Eight suspected patients of measles have succumbed to death of which 7 were from M East ward and 1 from L ward. Out of these, only one child had taken one dose of the measles vaccine and the rest had not taken the measles vaccine. There are 1259 suspected cases, 164 confirmed cases in Mumbai.