Doctors of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will brief parents in various schools about the special measles-rubella (MR) vaccination drive which will run for five weeks from January 9, a senior official of the civic body said on Monday.
Children between nine months and 15 years will be given a dose of the MR vaccine in their schools across Bengal as part of a programme to eradicate measles and control rubella. The KMC will manage the programme in the Kolkata municipal area.
The state health department is also likely to write to some schools that have not yet responded to get involved in the vaccination programme.
Across the state, the vaccine will be given in all schools for the first three weeks of the drive. In the next two weeks, health workers will visit houses to find out whether any eligible child missed out on the dose.
They will counsel the parents, if required, and ask them to take their child to the nearest centre to get him or her vaccinated against measles and rubella.
“Our doctors will visit schools and brief parents about the need to get their children vaccinated. Schools prefer that someone from the KMC brief parents about the vaccination drive during parents-teachers meetings,” said a KMC official. There are 2,488 schools in the Kolkata municipal area, of which around 200 are privately run.
A KMC official said the state health department would write to the ICSE, ISC and CBSE authorities seeking their help to ensure that the schools affiliated to them allow the civic body to set up camps on the campuses for the special vaccination programme.
The state school education department will ask all government and government-aided schools in the city to work with the KMC, officials said.
The vaccination drive will continue from January 9 to February 11. About 2.3 crore children are eligible for the jab across Bengal, said an official in the health department.
In Kolkata, there are about 12 lakh children in the nine months-to-15 years age group, who are eligible for the jab, said an official of the KMC.
A paediatrician told The Telegraph that eligible children should get vaccinated. He said there was no harm in administering the injection even to those who have already completed their MR or MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccination. MMR vaccines, because of their high cost, are not given for free in government-run centres.
MR shots are administered for free at government centres as part of the universal vaccination programme.