MMR vaccination campaign launched

MMR vaccination campaign launched
Updated 18 November 2013
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MMR vaccination campaign launched

MMR vaccination campaign launched

The Ministry of Health (MoH) launched on Sunday a national campaign for immunization against measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) and polio oral vaccine for 500,000 Grade 1 students in government and private schools in the capital.
Ziad Al-Memish, undersecretary at the Ministry of Health, urged parents to vaccinate their children in order for them to lead a healthy life. He said the MoH was able to vaccinate 98 percent of targeted children last year.
Al-Memish said the ministry has sought the support of the governors of the various regions in the Kingdom to implement the campaign effectively.
The Health Ministry’s program is being carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. Students in government, private and community primary and middle schools, as well as secondary schools and civil and military educational institutions, will be covered under this program.
He pointed out that the program is being carried out in an effort to implement the global commitment set to eradicate measles by 2015 from the Eastern Mediterranean region of the World Health Organization.
Recent studies conducted by experts from the WHO and the US-based Center for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that there is a high incidence of these diseases among students in colleges and universities.
A specialist in measles at the Ministry of Health said that children under the age of nine months need not take the vaccine since the infant derives immunity against measles from birth.
“Others who are suffering high fever can postpone their vaccination to a later date,” he said, stressing that those who suffer from immune deficiency diseases such as HIV or similar congenital diseases and who are allergic to vaccines should refrain from this vaccination. “There is no harm in repeating the vaccine if a person had taken it earlier,” he explained.
Measles is an acute viral contagious disease accompanied by fever, conjunctivitis, cough and red skin ulcers that first appear on the face and cover the entire body from the third to the seventh days of infection. Other common complications are middle-ear inflammation, pneumonia, broncholaryngitis, diarrhea and encephalitis.
There is no specific antiviral therapy for measles and the basic treatment consists of providing supportive therapy such as hydration, antipyretics and treating complications such as pneumonia.