Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Five more new cases of measles have surfaced, sending shock waves among the city health officials as the total number of patients found positive have now increased to 20 in the last 10 days.
Moreover, city officials believe that some patients will be tested positive as some of the sample reports are still pending.
“Five new patients found positive are between three and 12 years old. Out of these five patients, three are from Chandan Nagar, one each from Green Park Colony in Hatod, and one from Meena Palace in Azad Nagar,” District Immunisation Officer Dr Tarun Gupta said.
He said that all these patients have recovered well and none of them were fully vaccinated.
The team of the health department has intensified the door-to-door survey in these areas and also the vaccination drive. The team is also trying to motivate people to get their children vaccinated against measles-rubella and also to approach doctors on seeing symptoms of the diseases in children.
“We also asked health workers to intensify camps and to knock on every door to find children with symptoms of the disease,” Dr Gupta added.
Mega vaccination drive from tomorrow
Concerned over increasing cases of measles in the city, health department officials will run a mega vaccination drive across the city, focusing more at Muslim dominated areas. “We have decided to run a vaccination drive to vaccinate the remaining children or those resisting the doses. We will also distribute vitamin tablets during the drive,” the immunisation officer said.
There is no relief for Indore district as it has reported five new cases of measles to take the tally to 20 on Friday.
The new cases were reported from Green Park Colony Hatod, Chandan Nagar, and Meena Place and Azad Nagar.
The district immunisation in-charge, Dr Yogesh Chouhan said, “Five new infections are reported in the district to take the overall tally to 20.”
The cases are reported among kids aged six months to 11 years, showed the records. The new cases are detected from the pending reports with the laboratory.
Till now, the cases are mainly concentrated in areas like Khajrana, Chandan Nagar, Azad Nagar, Juni Indore under the limits of the city.
“All these cases have come from among unvaccinated kids in the district. These kids were left out during the MR vaccination campaign two months ago, when the coverage was recorded at 80% in some areas,” said Dr Chouhan.
The authorities have begun intense vaccination campaigns of MR from Friday along with routine immunisation of all kids.
The special vaccination zones are set up in focal areas with lesser coverage and with new infections. On Friday, the authorities inoculated around 250 kids with their MR dosage.
Till now, the district reported one fatality in a kid with measles and one case of rubella was also reported in the district.
