A Mission Mukti meeting held at Government Medical College Hospital, Manjeri, on Friday decided to make use of the medical students in the district to parry anti-scientific groups which are campaigning against immunisation.
Hundreds of medical students from the Manjeri medical college and MES Medical College, Perinthalmanna, will join the initiative to strengthen the ongoing vaccination campaign in the district. Mission Mukti is an organisation comprising doctors and officials from various bodies engaged in the welfare of children and dedicated to the cause of vaccination in the district. It was formed a few months ago in the wake of the realisation that vaccine-preventable diseases were taking a toll on the district.
The meeting also decided to take out kalajathas in all blocks in the district where deadly diphtheria had resurfaced. “A grass root-level action plan is being chalked out address the problem. We will include religious and political leaders at different levels to reach out to the sections which continue to refuse vaccination,” said Mission Mukti convener Kanniyan Binub, assistant professor of community medicine at MES Medical College, Perinthalmanna.
Awareness classes
Dr. Binub said that apart from strengthening the routine immunisation procedures, Mission Mukti would take the lead in organising 1,000 health education classes in the district. Special training programmes will be organised in all blocks not only for health workers, but also for community leaders, including madrasa and schoolteachers, as well.
Those who addressed the meeting included Deputy District Medical Officer A. Shibulal; District Child Protection Officer Sameer Machingal; Child Welfare Committee member Haris Panchilyl Mohandas Nair, head of the Department of Paediatrics, Medical College; and several doctors from medical colleges across the State.
Dr. Binub and K.K. Joshi, Indian Academy of Paediatrics president, met Sunni leader and Madin Academy Chairman Syed Ibrahim Khaleel Bukhari on Friday and chalked out a joint campaign for immunisation. Mr. Bukhari offered to mobilise Sunni masses to save the district from the shame of resisting vaccination.
