Measles shots: Mop-up drive does a lot better

A week-long special drive vaccinated over 4.7 lakh previously unvaccinated children against measles, nearly seven times the number immunised over the previous two months.

The outcome comes after the government acknowledged that the target of the nationwide emergency measles vaccination campaign had been inaccurate and a “mop-up” drive began on July 26.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

The mop-up drive is a targeted follow-up vaccination effort conducted after the main campaign to identify and vaccinate people who were missed.

A total of 4,74,567 children, aged six to 59 months, received the measles-rubella vaccine between July 26 and August 1 during the drive, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The latest figures amount to an average of about 67,795 vaccinations per day.

Only 68,831 children were vaccinated over the 65 days between May 21, the day after the campaign’s preliminary deadline, and July 25, averaging just 1,059 vaccinations a day, DGHS data show.

The special drive followed criticism from public health experts over a substantial gap in the emergency vaccination campaign, which they said had contributed to the continued outbreak, with over 1,000 cases and over 900 hospitalisations being reported daily in July.

Bangladesh recorded its highest daily measles hospitalisation since the outbreak began in mid-March on July 27, with 1,415 patients admitted.

Amid an unprecedented measles outbreak, the government launched an emergency nationwide measles-rubella vaccination campaign in phases on April 5 targeting 1.80 crore children aged six to 59 months.

By May 20, the initial deadline for the drive, the campaign vaccinated 1.84 crore children. The health ministry later extended the deadline, saying that many children had been left out.

Meanwhile, 2.23 crore children in the same age group received Vitamin A capsules during the nationwide campaign on June 28, exposing the coverage gap of 38.83 lakh children.

Health Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Hussain recently said the target set for the measles vaccination campaign was inaccurate and that the campaign had continued beyond the initial deadline of May 20, as many children remained unvaccinated.

But the speed of the campaign gradually slowed down, but the measles cases, hospitalisations, and deaths continued.

Hasanul Mahmud, assistant director of Expanded Programme on Immunization at DGHS, said that upon receiving instructions from the health minister, they started the mop-up drive, and all civil surgeons were asked to take steps to identify and vaccinate children who had not yet received their shots.

“Our staffers are visiting every household to check whether all eligible children have been vaccinated,” he told The Daily Star yesterday.

In some areas, unvaccinated children were administered shots at home, while elsewhere, health workers prepared lists and asked families to bring their children to vaccination centres, he added.

Responding to another question, the DGHS official said they would continue the mop-up drive until all households had been covered.

Talking to this correspondent, Cumilla Civil Surgeon Ali Noor Mohammad Bashir Ahmed said they had already covered around 70 percent of households over the past week and would continue the effort.