Vaccination against measles will be made effective: Giri

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT,Banke, Jan. 23: Minister for Health and Population Padam Giri has said that all political parties should be aware that no child should be missed vaccination against measles.

"All the children should be vaccinated by reaching their homes,” Minister Giri urged the local residents of  the Fultekra area in Nepalgunj Sub Metropolitan-5, where the measles epidemic has spread, on Sunday.  

"Teachers and parents should advocate to vaccinate all the children,” he said. 

Minister Giri said that measles patients have been found in Banke and other districts as well and said that a team of the ministry had visited the affected areas to help make an effective plan for its prevention and control. 

He said that the vaccination campaign against measles would be made more effective.

On this occasion, Sarafat Husain Shesh, ward chair of Nepalgunj 5, told Minister Giri that they were trying to create an environment so that all children would be vaccinated.

"With the help of civil society, religious and political leaders, we are also teaching that vaccination is mandatory for all children," said Shesh, "Awareness generating  programmes have begun at the ward level."

On this occasion, Minister Giri said that the ministry was serious about the control of measles and said that the health workers were assigned for the prevention and control after the outbreak of measles, the women health volunteers and the local residents were also mobilised. 

He also said that if the required land is managed within the ward, sufficient budget would be allocated for the construction of the building of the health post.

Minister Giri was apprised of efforts being made to prevent and control measles and necessary support from the Ministry by Sunita Paudel, head of Health Office Banke, and Ram Bahadur Chand, chief of Nepalgunj Sub Metropolitan Health Branch.

Secretary of the Ministry Roshan Pokharel along with Minister Giri, Dipendraraman Singh, Director General of Health Services Department, and others inspected the measles-affected areas.

A 31 -month- old child died of measles in Banke while 260 patients have been found so far. 

Vaccination campaign against measles is going on in the district.

Meanwhile, Our Dhangadhi correspondent Prakash Bikram Shah adds that two measles patients were found in Kailali and samples of the two suspects have been collected in the district.

According to head of the District Health Office Kailali Lal Bahadur Dhami, a five- year-and-10-month-old child of Bhaisihar in Godawari Municipality-3 and an 18-month-old toddler of Gauriganga Municipality-6 were infected with measles. He said that the health condition of both the children was normal. 

Even though both children were vaccinated against measles, they were infected with the disease, informed the health office. Similarly, symptoms of measles have been seen in two other children of Pashupati Tole of Dhangadhi Sub Metropolitan City-1. The samples had been collected and sent to lab for the test, said Dhami. 

He said that a three-and-a-half-year-old child with half vaccination and five-year-old child without vaccination from Dhangadhi were diagnosed with measles after they  returned home from India. Both the children are from the same locality.

The health office assumed that both the children might have missed the vaccination since their parents often travel to India for work. 

A baby needs to receive up to 13 different types of vaccinations by the age of 15 months. If they miss any of the vaccinations, they need to be vaccinated by the age of five.