One of the largest ever vaccination campaign is set to take place across the country between January 25 and February 13, with the government planning to administer measles-rubella (MR) vaccines to around 5 crore 20 lakh children between the age of nine months and 15 years.
The health ministry has also set a target of providing oral polio vaccines to over two crore children under the age of five during the three-week long national campaign.
Dr Abu Zafor Md Musa, director of primary health care at Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), told the Dhaka Tribune that as far as he knew, it would be one of the largest vaccination campaigns of the world, with one-third of the total Bangladeshi population being brought under the vaccination coverage.
Saying Bangladesh had remained polio-free since 2006 and was set to be certified for the achievement in March, Musa added that the aim of the nationwide campaign was to sustain the polio-free status, and eliminate measles and rubella diseases.
Dr Shafiqur Rahman, programme manager of Expanded Immunization Programme, said children were the usual victims of measles and rubella – both of which are communicable diseases.
Measles causes pneumonia, diarrhea, malnutrition, encephalitis, blindness and deafness; while, rubella infection of the pregnant mother within three months of pregnancy could result in miscarriage, or the child could be born with Congenital Rubella Syndrome.
Senior officials at the health ministry said 211 measles and 2,911 rubella patients were found in the country in 2013. They also expressed hopes that the countrywide vaccination programme would save thousands of children and pregnant mothers from being effected with measles or rubella.
The Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunization (GAVI) has reportedly provided over $33.5m to conduct the nationwide MR vaccination campaign, while Unicef has bought Tk287 crore worth of vaccine with the budget.
The target of this programme was to increase the MR vaccine coverage up to 95% within 2016 and reduce the rate of the infected by 90% compared to figures from 2010.
In the first week, MR vaccines would be given to around 3 crore 35 lakh students of 171,000 schools, while during the second and third weeks (February 1 to February 13) MR vaccines would be given at 120,000 fixed sites of Expanded Immunization Programme across the country. A total of 66,993 skilled vaccinators and 241,000 trained volunteers would work to make the campaign a success.
Speaking at a press brief ahead of the programme, Health Minister Mohammed Nasim yesterday urged citizens to get vaccines from their nearest centres. He also sought help from the media for creating mass awareness amongst the general people throughout the country.
Nasim also blamed some unscrupulous people of spreading rumours to tarnish the ministry’s image, and called on citizens to keep their eyes open to avoid the rumours.