Measles and Rubella (MR)

Why in News?

• Recently, India set a goal (in 2019) to eradicate measles and rubella (MR) by 2023 after missing the previous deadline of 2020 (an earlier target of 2015 was also missed) for a number of reasons, worsened by the pandemic’s disruptions

Highlights

• According to the WHO, the measles virus is one of the world’s most contagious human viruses that kills more than 1,00,000 children every year globally and rubella is a leading cause of birth defects.
• An outbreak of measles in Maharashtra in 2022, particularly in Mumbai, killed 15 children among several hundred who contracted the infection.
• During 2010-2013, India conducted a phased measles catch-up immunisation for children aged 9 months-10 years in 14 States, vaccinating approximately 119 million children.
• Mission Indradhanush was launched in 2014 to ramp up vaccinating the unvaccinated population.
• During 2017–2021, India adopted a national strategic plan for MR elimination, and introduced rubella-containing vaccine (RCV) into the routine immunisation programme, besides launching a nationwide MR supplementary immunisation activity (SIA) catch-up campaign.
• Additionally, it changed the focus of acute fever and rash surveillance from outbreak-based to case-based.
• Also, the number of laboratories in the MR network has more than doubled.
• The main concern is the under-one-year population. But if the immunisation at 95% can be maintained, it will be possible.
• However, it needs to be done district by district –
• Give each district a target to achieve the required rate of immunisation,
• Conduct a robust fever and rash surveillance programme, testing for MR.
• Monitoring the progress and providing additional inputs to the districts that are lagging in implementing the immunisation.
• In the process, it is important to provide full support (improve their service conditions, and salaries) to the ground-level staff (village health nurses, ASHA, Anganwadi and ICDS workers) who implement the programme.