Measles needs vaccination strategy like polio: IMA

Awareness needs to be created about the need and safety of measles vaccination

Statistics indicate that about 1,34,200 children, mostly under the age of five years, died due to measles around the world in the year 2015. In India, it killed 49,200 children. As per the IMA, measles is a deadly disease and one of the main causes behind child mortality in the country. Eliminating measles will help achieve Sustainable Development Goal’s target 3.2, which aims to end preventable deaths of children under five years by 2030.

Speaking about this, Dr KK Aggarwal, National President, Indian Medical Association (IMA) and President, Heart Care Foundation of India (HCFI) and Dr RN Tandon – Secretary General, IMA in a joint statement, said, “The rubeolavirus lives in the mucus of the nose and throat of an infected child or adult. The disease is contagious for four days before the rash appears. It then continues to be contagious for about four to five days after. A person can get infected through physical contact with an infected person, being near an infected people when they cough or sneeze, touching a surface that has infected droplets of mucus. When the virus enters the body, it multiplies in the back of the throat, lungs, and the lymphatic system. The infection then replicates in the urinary tract, eyes, blood vessels, and central nervous system.”

The symptoms of measles include runny nose, dry hacking cough, swollen eyelids, and inflamed and watery eyes, sensitivity to light, sneezing, a reddish-brown rash, Koplik’s spots, and generalised body aches.

Adding further, Dr Aggarwal, said, “A highly contagious disease, measles spreads like wildfire in communities where children are unvaccinated. Since the virus reduces immunity, children who have had measles – especially those who are undernourished – may die of pneumonia, diarrhoea and encephalitis later on. India should build on its polio eradication campaign experience to ensure more children get vaccinated against measles. Awareness needs to be created about the need and safety of measles vaccination.”