Mira Bhayandar: Five more children have been diagnosed with measles, taking the total count of patients to eight in the twin-city.
According to information received from the health department attached to the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC), three out of the five cases have been detected from the Kashigaon area which has now been tagged as a locality which is staring at a suspected outbreak of the infection.
Detected in door-to-door campaign
The cases were detected after the MBMC recently launched a door-to-door campaign to check symptoms and take necessary steps including blood-urine sample collection for examination after coming across a suspected case of measles. However, it took nearly 15 days for reports to reach the health department.
The condition of the children aged between six to nine years is stable and they are being treated at their homes, officials said. Meanwhile, the MBMC has launched a drive to inoculate children between the age group of 6 months to five years with the additional dose of the measles and rubella (MR) vaccine- especially in vulnerable areas like Kashigaon. A highly contagious disease caused by a virus, Measlescan sometimes prove to be fatal. An outbreak is a cluster of at least five cases from the same area.