Asha workers to identify 1 million children for MMR vaccination, special campaigns soon

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: The campaign to eliminate mumps, measles and rubella is set to scaled up by identifying children who are yet to be vaccinated for MMRby 2026. As many as 1 million children have still not received their MMR vaccination in India.

As part of the plan, special immunization programmes will commence very soon across India in a phased wise manner,according to an official aware of the matter. On Wednesday, Mint reported that the Union cabinet highlighted the achievements of the National Health Mission (NHM) and indicated that the vaccination coverage is 97% at around 347.7 million children. Also Read | India tightens adverse events guidelines after vaccination, says studies under way to monitor covid In India, MMR vaccination is part of a Universal Immunization Programme (UIP), and the government is aiming to achieve 100% coverage to eliminate the diseases by 2026.

“We estimate that there could be around 1 million children not vaccinated with MMR vaccination. This may also include those who have not received any basic vaccination-meaning ‘zero dose’ children. But numbers could be even more," said an official aware of the matter.

Also Read | Covid-19 pandemic fueled vaccine misinformation – What experts are saying Under the campaign, Asha (accredited social health activist) workers go from door to door to identify unvaccinated children for immunization, the official said. Every year, the government allocates funds of around ₹10,000-12,000 crore for universal immunization, one of the highest allocations in the health sector. Also Read | HMPV has no vaccine even after 24 years of its discovery This allocation is for supplies of vaccines, syringes and cold chain equipment to states and