Measles cases in India
dropped by 43% in a year: WHO
Measles cases
in India have dropped significantly by a whopping 43 per cent between 2015 and
2016 for the first time and are expected to dramatically fall this year too as
India builds on its polio eradication campaign experience to eliminate measles
by 2020, latest data released by the World Health
Organisation(WHO)
shows.
India reported 17,250 measles cases in 2016, down from 30,168 in 2015. By 2018, India plans to reach 40 crore children with the measles vaccine, which is expected to considerably reduce the disease burden and help India meet its 2020 elimination target.
However, currently
the country, continues to fall behind others, accounting for over 60 per cent
of the total measles cases in the WHO South East Asia region (SEAR). India also
accounts for a significant number of deaths from measles. Of the 1,34,200
measles death globally in 2016, the WHO South East Asia Region, comprising of
11 countries, accounted for around 54,500 deaths. Of this, around 49,200
occurred in India--nearly 36 per cent of the global deaths from measles and
rubella.
While experts
blame India's demographics and misinformation about use of vaccines for the
poor vaccination coverage,
the country has ramped up its measles immunisation coverage to 88 per cent in
2016 and is now hopeful on building on that to achieve the elimination target.
"We are adopting a two-pronged strategy for measles elimination. Firstly,
we will attack by intensifying the coverage of measles rubella vaccine by
building on the existing coverage which will reduce the transmission. Secondly,
we will ramp up coverage to take care of the new cases," health secretary
C K Mishra, representing India in the meeting, told TOI.
While measles
vaccine was already part of the government's universal immunisation programme,
this year the health ministry also introduced a new combined vaccine for
measles and rubella.
Source: www.timesofindia.com
14.09.2017
The greatest barrier to success is the fear
of failure
Sven Goran
Eriksson
No comments:
Post a Comment