Nagpur: Taking a cue from the spurt in measles cases in Mumbai, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) Health machinery has stepped-up vaccination of children up to 5 years of age as cases of measles have been reported with identification of 10 suspects so far. The outbreak of measles was first reported in the Mumbai metropolis and has now spread across the country and emerged as major causes of concern. Taking the steps to contain any major health crisis, the civic body officials went into action mode and undertook preventive vaccination.
Two cases of measles were found in Dharampeth and Dhantoli Zone respectively. Lakadganj Zone has reported the highest number of cases, four so far while one suspect each was detected in Gandhibagh and Aasi Nagar Zone respectively. House to house survey has been undertaken by the NMC in addition to taking help of health officials in the field for timely detection of the measles cases in the city.
As per the statistics collated by NMC highest number of 36,418 houses was surveyed in Ashi Nagar Zone No. 9 while least number was in Laxminagar Zone, that is 15,387. Mangalwari Zone has surveyed 29,916, Lakadganj 28,258, Nehru Nagar-34,196, Dhantoli – 18,382 , Hanuman Nagar- 17,196 , Satranjipura-18,637.
So far about 64,345 children up to 5-years of age are living in Nagpur city and among them 1458 children have not been vaccinated with Rubella/Measles. So far about 1711 children have taken the first dose and 1515 have been provided the second dose of preventive vaccine. About 3953 children have been administered Vit A dose so far.
The NMC has set up a dedicated cell and is putting in place measures to prevent an outbreak of the disease in Nagpur. There is no measles outbreak or sudden rise in cases like Mumbai and other parts of the country in Vidarbha. At least western Vidarbha (Nagpur division) is quite safe from the outbreak mainly due to good vaccination coverage.
