Massive preparations have been under way in the State for the rollout of the public health campaign for vaccinating children from nine months to 15 years against measles and rubella as part of the nationwide introduction of the measles-rubella (MR) vaccine in a phased manner over a period two to three years to be followed by its provision in routine immunisation.
The health services in the State have already been fine-tuned for the launch of the MR campaign beginning on October 3 for collectively immunising the targeted group. The vaccination campaign in the State plans to cover 76,13,602 children. As the campaign requires political and administrative co-ordination, the State-level co-ordination committee comprising Health and Education Ministers are supervising the efforts. The State-level task force headed by the Director of Health Services is providing technical and logistic support and will monitor the MR campaign. In the district level, there is the task force with the District Collector as chairman and a planning-co-ordination committee with the district panchayat president as its chairman.
Campaign details
“The vaccination campaign in the State involves 74,000 scheduled camps/sessions in nearly 20,000 schools, 35,000 anganwadis, 1,300 government hospitals and public health centres in the State,” Health Minister K.K. Shylaja said. Training programme for doctors, junior public health nurses, health workers, teachers, anganwadi workers and accredited social health activists (ASHA) have already been completed, she said while announcing the preparations for the launch of the programme.
The manpower being deployed for the campaign includes doctors, who will monitor the vaccination camps, and the field staff including health supervisors, health inspectors, junior public health nurses. According to Health Services officials, around 5,000 to 6,000 field staff will be deployed in the vaccination campaign in each district and roughly 300-500 doctors will be involved for monitoring the camps. The month-long campaign is envisaged as school-level camps in the first two weeks and outreach camps in select areas in the next two weeks.
“The MR vaccine campaign is the first mass injectable vaccination after the small pox vaccination,” said Riaz I., State secretary of the Indian Academy of Paediatricians, which is one of the co-ordinating partners of the campaign. Paediatricians are involved in conducting training programmes and also for holding classes in schools for creating awareness of the vaccination drive, Dr. Riaz informed.
Communication
Communication is identified as a major component for social mobilisation for the campaign for creating awareness. Anganwadi workers and ASHA workers are being roped in for mobilisation and awareness creation. UNICEF is involved in facilitating community acceptance of the vaccination campaign and strengthening capacity of the stakeholders. “In Kerala, the vaccination drive has wider community acceptance and resistance to vaccination is confined to only a few pockets,” said Saurabh Agrawal, co-ordinator of UNICEF involved in handling communication challenges in the districts.
“Councillors and ward members of the local bodies are also being taken on board for social mobilisation for the campaign,” said P.M. Jyothi, Reproductive Child Health Officer in Kannur. Ms. Jyothi, who is involved in the training and communication programmes in the district, says great importance is given to grassroots level awareness programmes.
Health Services officials said that cold chain and vaccine management is maintained for the proper cold storage of the vaccines. Also in place are facilities for the collection, transportation and disposal of the immunization waste. Auto-disabled syringes are being used for the vaccination of each child through sub-cutaneous injection. Each child is injected with a dose of 0.5 ml vaccine, they said adding that each vial of vaccine from the Serum Institute, Pune, contains 10 doses.
