India’s plan to eradicate measles and rubella

Subject : Science and Technology

Section: Health/ Diseases/Health related initiatives

India’s target of eradicating Measles and Rubella:

India had set a target to eliminate measles and rubella (MR) by 2023, having missed the earlier deadline of 2020, due to a variety of reasons, exacerbated by disruptions due to the pandemic.
An earlier target that was set for 2015 was also missed.
It was in 2019 that India adopted the goal of measles and rubella elimination by 2023, anticipating that the 2020 goal could not be reached.

The severity of Measles and Rubella virus:

As per the WHO, the measles virus is one of the world’s most contagious human viruses that kills more than 1,00,000 children every year globally, and rubella is a leading vaccine-preventable cause of birth defects.
Both measles and rubella can be prevented by just two doses of a safe and effective vaccine.
- Over the past two decades, the measles vaccine is estimated to have averted more than 30 million deaths globally.
Symptoms are a rash and fever.
- While measles has a high fatality rate, rubella infection in a pregnant woman will have an impact on the foetus, resulting in birth defects.

Measles outbreak in Maharashtra:

There was an outbreak of measles in Maharashtra, particularly in Mumbai in October 2022.

Steps taken to eradicate the MR virus:

During 2010–2013, India conducted a phased measles catch-up immunisation for children aged 9 months–10 years in 14 States, vaccinating approximately 119 million children.
Mission Indradhanush was launched in 2014 to ramp up vaccinating the unvaccinated population.
During 2017–2021, India adopted a national strategic plan for measles and rubella elimination, and introduced rubella-containing vaccine (RCV) into the routine immunisation programme, besides launching a nationwide measles-rubella supplementary immunisation activity (SIA) catch-up campaign.
- It also transitioned from outbreak-based surveillance to case-based acute fever and rash surveillance, and more than doubled the number of laboratories in the measles-rubella network.

Is the target achievable?

Targets will be easier to achieve in States such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala, due to the robust immunisation infrastructure.
In the other States, additional efforts should be taken to work towards achieving the target.