Fresh 4,062 cases of measle fever and rash have been identified when surveillance of 53,66,144 houses were done by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
The count of measle cases all the year round is 717 with Mumbai alone counting 303 cases, according to health department in India. By 28th November 2022, Mumbai witnessed 10 death reports due to measle infection while the total number of deaths encountered in this year is 14 among these only one patient was vaccinated against measles. The death counted were majorly of the age group of 12-24 months.
Measles cases in Maharashtra have shown an increasing graph as 1,337 cases confirm reported cases in year 2019, 2150 cases confirmed in year 2020, 3668 cases reported previous year and the rise to 4062 cases by end of November in 2022, as per the official statement.
The arrangement for additional vaccine jab will be made available from December start across divided 33 health post in Mumbai as the immediate response to the outbreak.
The primary reason behind the surge of cases this year is hinderance in vaccination of children from the past two years due to pandemic. While the majority of the cases are reported from low socio-economic background with severe malnutrition among children.
Measles or Rubeola is highly infectious viral disease that attacks the respiratory system of young children. Measles is symptomatic an it takes 10-15 days for the symptoms to appear after exposure to virus. Common symptoms are body aches, high fever, appetite loss, sore throat, rashes which begins from hairline or behind ears and later covers other parts of the body from throat to limbs to joints. Some may witness white dots on hard pallet of mouth. In some cases, associated diseases as pink eye, pneumonia, diarrhea or ear infection may be seen. Adverse conditions like brain inflammation may also come as part of measle infection and severity to Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis, a highly fatal condition of central nervous system also observed.
Measles vaccination is the only preventive measure. A combination vaccine of measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) is given to children of age group 12-15 months and the same other dose is given at the age group of 4-6 years
