Department of Information and Public Relations

Press Release No. 592/18

DTFI REVIEWS PREPARATIONS FOR MR CAMPAIGN AT AMPATI

A second round of meeting of the District Task Force on Immunization (DTFI) was held at Ampati on Thursday to review the preparedness and micro plan for the upcoming Measles-Rubella Vaccination Campaign (MRVC) in South West Garo Hills district. The meeting, chaired by Deputy Commissioner & Chairman DTFI Ramkumar S, was also attended by Superintendent of Police, B.S.W.Momin, Additional Deputy Commissioners H.D.B.Sangma and D.D.Shira, BDOs and EACs, besides all the members of the District Task Force, medical officers, nodal officers and programme managers of all the three blocks. Addressing the meeting, Deputy Commissioner said that MRVC is a massive national campaign to eradicate Measles and Rubella by the year 2020. Measles and Rubella are killer diseases and one of the main causes of high infant mortality rate in the country. After reviewing the preparations and micro plan for the campaign in the district, Deputy Commissioner stressed the involvement of all in the district from the highest level to the lowest, saying “there is no such thing as big or small role in this campaign, everyone must be involved to ensure its success”. He sought reports from the medical officers in charge of PHCs and CHCs for any issues or challenges that can be sorted out in the meeting, to which it was informed that in certain area rumours were being spread that the vaccination was being given to stop child births and control population, which has resulted in some section of community refusing to participate in the campaign. In this regard, the Deputy Commissioner has directed the District Immunization Officer and Education officials to visit the area to create awareness about the campaign. The district police have also been asked to monitor and tackle any such rumours that may arise during the course of the campaign.

It was also decided during the meeting that all the magistrates would monitor the campaign in the district and specific areas would be designated for each magistrate for monitoring the same. The Deputy Commissioner also said that there should be continuous presence of the magistrates in the schools during the campaign. BDOs have also been asked to engage with the VECs in their respective blocks to ensure that all the children in their villages are immunized with MR vaccine during the campaign. Health department has been asked to coordinate with Block Mission Coordinators (SSA) and share with them the day-to-day planning so that they can inform the schools in advance the schedule of vaccination for the respective schools. DM&HO, Ampati, Dr. K.A.Sangma said that with the full support from the district administration she was confident that the district would be able to achieve the target just as it had been able to achieve success during IMI and SIMI, while District Immunization Officer, Dr. C.R. Sangma informed the meeting that massive IEC activities would start from next week after the micro plan has been completed. In this regard, the Deputy Commissioner said that specific IEC activities should be planned to ensure effective communication. Meanwhile, a workshop was also conducted for the medical officers on Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) at Ampati on Thursday.