A video on social media went viral, allegedly warning people against the measles-rubella vaccination in Nawanshahr District, Punjab. Following rumours on social media, the district administration assured people that the vaccine was completely safe. Deputy Commissioner (DC) Amit Kumar termed the rumours on social media an ‘act of anti-social people’. Dismissing the rumours, DC Pardeep Kumar Agrawal got his daughter Diya Agrawal vaccinated on the first day of the campaign against measles-rubella.

With an aim to eliminate measles and control congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) in the country, a district-level vaccination campaign against measles-rubella kicked off on Tuesday. The DC Pardeep Agrawal along with civil surgeon Dr Parvinder Pal Singh Sidhu started the campaign in the district for children aged between nine months to 15 years. On day one of the three-week long campaign against measles-rubella, health department set up 221 camps at various school where a total of 29,784 children were vaccinated. An estimated 12.55 lakh children will be vaccinated in Ludhiana and the vaccination will be carried out in schools during the first two-week and later in the community through outreach sessions.

The deputy commissioner asked the people to participate positively in the campaign and motivated health officials to ensure not even a single child between the age-group should be left. Meanwhile, civil surgeon Dr Sidhu said three phases of measles-rubella vaccination campaign have already been completed in 13 states covering around seven to eight crore children with this vaccine safely while Punjab is being covered in Phase 4. Sidhu further affirmed that all vaccinators are highly skilled health workers who administer vaccinations in large numbers regularly following the best injection and waste disposal practices.

District Immunization Officer (DIO) Dr Jasbir Singh said both the diseases can be prevented by immunising children with two doses of this vaccination which is safe and effective. He said the aim of MR campaign is to accelerate population immunity by reaching 100% target with the vaccine that will reduce cases and deaths from measles and CRS. He further said that the target is to make state as well as country measles and rubella free by 2020.

On the occasion, assistant civil surgeon Dr Manjeet Singh, senior medical officer of world health organisation (WHO) Dr Gagan Sharma and others were present. The DC said the campaign is aimed to eradicate the virus of this fatal disease and exhorted people to give their full support to make the campaign a huge success. The earlier tragedy that struck in Jharkhand in April, where a vaccination drive took lives of three infants, would have sparked the rumours.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 02, 2018 09:38 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).