The outbreak of measles and rubella in the slum areas has thrown the health department into a tizzy as it's scrambling resources to conduct daily screening of more than 3,000 houses and organise vaccination camps.
The problem aggravates as most of the people living in these highly congested areas are reluctant to get their kids vaxxed. The state health department has sent alerts to all medical health officers for tracking the unvaxxed kids in the areas of outbreak.
A three-member central team is already surveying Govandi where a boy, who died recently, was confirmed to be a victim of measles. Meanwhile, the BMC has conducted visits to 705 houses and screened 3,907 people in Govandi's Rafi Nagar. The officials found six suspects with fever and rash.
Also, five additional immunisation camps were conducted on Thursday to inoculate kids. A total of 130 children and 8 pregnant women were given vaccination, including shots for measles and rubella as well. These door-to-door surveys will be conducted daily for the next 10 days in Govandi which had also reported fatalities of three kids.
The deaths suspected to be from measles are under the scrutiny of BMC death review committee. The central team has made suggested measures which need to be followed by the local medical health officers and their team.
“We had visited the deceased family but they refused to meet us. We took stock of the upsurge in the vicinity,” said the official from the state health department.
As per the BMC data, 53 measles cases have been detected between September and November 10. Of them, 21 cases are from Govandi.
Dr Nitin Ambadekar, Joint Director of Health Services, said they have directed the BMC to keep a close tab on the measles outbreak. “We have made several measures whichinclude screen, survey and vaccination. We have also instructed them to give vitamin A drops to the suspected measles patients. Moreover, we have asked them to track vaccine dropout children and create awareness through different modes of communication,” he said.
Senior health officials said they will require more manpower for conducting daily door-to-door surveys of 3,000 houses in Rafi Nagar.
‘Slums pockets are hotbed of measles’
According to a survey conducted by the Raksha Hospital Research Forum (RHRF), an outfit of the Raksha Multispeciality Hospital in Malad, slum pockets in congested localities like Malwani and Ganesh Nagar in the western suburbs are hotbeds for the very contagious measles.
RHRF experts suspect there are more than 100 cases of the measles in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). Hospital Managing Director Dr Pranav Kabra MD said, “The BMC has estimated over 58-60 cases of measles in Mumbai (as of Wednesday evening). But our estimates say that at least 100-110 kids could have the measles in the entire MMR.”
The BMC must concentrate on pockets like Malwani, Govandi, Dharavi, Ganesh Nagar (Kandivali) and other slum pockets where the population density is very high and several children could be living in a single shanty, Dr Kabra suggested, adding that even street kids could be possibly infected.
