All Set For Massive Anti-Measles/Rubella Drive From Monday

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Nov, 2021 ) :Chief Executive Officer(CEO)District Health Authority Dr Faiza Kanwal has said that as many as 2,328,972 children between 9 months to 15 years of age would get anti-Measles and Rubella vaccine in the entire district under a 13 day-long drive, starting from November 15 to 27.

Under the drive, she told APP, that 328 medical officers, 1812 skilled persons besides 1812 team assistants and 3368 social mobilizers would visit 210 Union Councils of the district, including 46 Union Councils(UC) of Metropolitan Corporation Rawalpindi (MCR), 36 tehsil Rawalpindi, 28 Rawalpindi Cantt, 33 Gujar Khan, 14 Kahutta, 11 Kalar Syeda, 10 Kotli sattian, 15 Murree and 17 Union councils of tehsil Taxila.

Giving details of the number of children targeted during the drive, she informed that some 454,793 would administer the doses in the MCR area, 503,107 in tehsil Rawalpindi 419,016 in Rawalpindi Cantt. Similarly, in Gujar Khan, the number of children who would receive the vaccine was 293,328. In Kahutta, 95,036, 93,610 in Kalar Syeda and 51,408 in Kotli Sattian. In contrast, 292,081 children would receive the doses in tehsil Taxila while Murree the number was 100,593. The CEO further said Medical superintendents and Principals of government hospitals and educational institutions had provided lists of vaccinators and students enrolled in government and private schools to make the campaign successful, she added.

Dr Faiza informed that training of dispensers, vaccinators, supervisors and other related staff had been completed.

At the same time, she described that the health department had already engaged in fighting the deadly coronavirus besides dealing with dengue cases. She said both the measles and rubella were vaccine-preventable and could lead to death or blindness and other permanent disabilities. "Measles is an acute viral respiratory illness and is characterized by a prodrome of fever and malaise, cough, coryza, and conjunctivitis -the three "C" s -, pathognomonic enanthema (Koplik spots) followed by a maculopapular rash while the rash usually appears about 14 days after a person is exposed," the CEO added.

Explaining Rubella infection, she said it was also known as German measles or three-day measles caused by the rubella virus. Dr Faiza noted that disease was often mild, with half of the people not realizing that they were infected. "A rash may start around two weeks after exposure and last for three days; it usually starts on the face and spreads to the rest of the body", the health officer informed.

She informed that more than 90.1 million children would be vaccinated across the country, while 46.6 million would receive the injection in Punjab, with a daily target of over 3.7 million children per day.

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