Measles-Rubella vaccination campaign was launched today across Jammu district to administer MR vaccine to over 3.85 Lakh children falling in the 9 month to 15 year age group.District Development Commissioner, Ramesh Kumar inaugurated the vaccination campaign here at Government Girls High School Gandhi Nagar.The measles-rubella campaign marks the introduction of the rubella vaccine in India’s childhood immunization programme for the first time. The campaign will continue till 20 October 2018 and cover around 38 lakh children in Jammu and Kashmir State.In Jammu district, vaccination will be given to over 3.85 Lakh children including 1.13 lakh in urban and 2.72 lakh in rural areas. Around 2.89 lakh children in the targeted age group including 0.81 lakh in urban areas and 2.07 lakh in rural areas, will be covered in schools, while estimated 0.96 lakh out-of-school beneficiaries of the district including 0.32 Lakh in urban areas and 0.64 lakh in rural areas will be covered through outreach service.It was informed that the schools across Jammu district have coordinated with chief medical officer (CMO) and prepared a schedule for vaccination in each institution.
According to health department, 7751 school children and 211 outreach beneficiaries were covered on the first day of the campaign in the district.Among others who were present on the occasion includes CMO Dr Sanjay Turki , Assistant director Family Welfare, Dr. LD Bhagat, Medical Superintendent Gandhi Nagar Hospital, Dr. ADS Manhas, Deputy CMO, Dr. MY Khan, SMO-WHO, Dr. Ravinder pal Singh, Medical Officers and Principal and staff of the School.Meanwhile, Measles-Rubella Vaccination campaign was also launched by Deputy Commissioner Poonch Rahul Yadav at a function organized at Christ HSS in under the supervision of Chief Medical Officer Dr Mumtaz Bhatti .As per official estimates, District Poonch has 1.7 lakh children in the targeted age group. More than 85% of the children are to be vaccinated in Government Schools, Private Schools and Madarsas.