BMC to revisit parents sceptical about rubella vaccination

Within a week of the measles and rubella vaccination campaign, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has covered more than three lakh children across the city. The public health department officials will revisit the schools and parents, who may still have some misconception about the vaccination.

In some community schools, there is fear in parents' mind about the side effects of the vaccine. The civic body has said that they will create awareness and will go back to cover the children, who are missing out the vaccination.

Dr Santosh Revankar, joint executive health officer, public health department, BMC, said, "We are majorly focusing on giving the vaccination in schools because it helps us narrow down our reach to the targeted group than doing house-to-house survey. A school set up will help reach the children faster. In Mumbai, there are a few schools where the parents are not ready to give vaccination to their children due to some misconceptions. We will be creating awareness and clearing the doubts of the parents through parent-teachers meetings."

He said, "We will revisit a few pockets in the city, where due to misconception we were unable to give the vaccination, after completing the vaccination in other schools who are ready for the campaign."

The campaign was started in Mumbai on November 27. Of a target group of the total 29,90,900 children, 3,22,024 children have been vaccinated within seven days in over 998 schools across the city.

The vaccination campaign has already been completed in 28 states and more than 13 crore children between 9 months and 15 years of age are vaccinated in the country.