India’s Next Nightmare: Experts Fear Measles Outbreak As Covid Disrupts Child Immunisation Programme
Kolkata, WEST BENGAL — When 24 year old Aparna Bera walked to the health sub centre in south Choto-Rakkhaskhali, an island in the Sundarbans, for a booster dose of the diphtheria vaccination for her 16 month old daughter, she found the sub-centre was closed.
“I was told by the Asha workers that due to an outbreak near the sub-centre, vaccination is postponed,” Bera said.
Four people in the village had contracted the novel coronavirus, prompting a closure of the sole public health facility on the island, and the suspension of the immunisation programme for infants. (Asha workers, or Accredited Social Health Activists, are a vital part of rural India’s public health system.)
Bera’s experience is far from unique. Across the world, the novel coronavirus pandemic and the consequent lockdowns, have disrupted national immunisation programmes putting an estimated 80 million children in 68 countries at risk of contracting diphtheria, polio and measles according to WHO and UNICEF.
In India, Priti Mahara, Director, Policy Research and Advocacy, Child Rights and You (CRY) said India’s immunisation programme had suffered a massive setback since March this year.
“A whopping 63% of the surveyed households in the northern states reported the lack of access to immunisation services, followed by West with 39 per cent; while less than a third of the respondents reported inaccessibility to immunisation from other regions,” Mahara said, adding that CRY’s survey found that one in four respondents said healthcare for children was inaccessible during the lockdown.
“Most of it was reported from the North (31%), followed by the South (21%). In other regions, lack of access to regular healthcare facilities was experienced by less than 20% of the parents,” Mahara said.
In India, interviews with parents, health workers, government officers and public health experts in West Bengal, Delhi, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, reveal that the covid-related disruptions to the...
