From Our Correspondent
TURA: Authorities in West Garo Hills district say that close to fifty thousand children in the age group of 9 months to 10 years have been successfully vaccinated against measles during the first three days of the nation-wide immunization programme that began on Monday, a remarkable success even though cent percent coverage has eluded health authorites.
Measles is still a major killer among young children in most parts of the country with most victims losing their fight due to secondary infections like pneumonia, brain infection and diarrhea that attack the weak immune system of children during the outbreak of the disease.
Deputy Commissioner of West Garo Hills, Sanjay Goyal, has said that in the first three days of the programme health authorities planned to cover 59397 children out of whom a total of 46472 have since been covered with the immunization jab.
“Our estimated enrollment in this age group is approximately one lakh children,” said the deputy commissioner.
A major portion of the immunization’s success has been with the schools as thousands of children lined up to get the booster dose. The Measles Catch Up campaign which began on monday concludes on Saturday.