Measles-Rubella vaccination campaign or the popularly called MR campaign- the vaccination endeavour that happens in many nations successfully is biting bitter and sour in Kerala. Anybody would wonder why the most well-educated state would turn face away from such a genuine programme held under the supervision of the WHO with all possible planning and utmost care by the local health department. The answer is interesting- social media literally handicapped the vaccination programme with all baseless messages. How could the fully literate state fall prey to this anti-vaccination campaign? Doesn’t that sound ridiculous? Yes, it does. When doctors to the base level health workers were busy learning and teaching about measles, rubella and the vaccination campaign three months ago, the set of antivaccine crew was busy writing and publishing antivaccine material entirely against the government programme.
They had messages dipped in threats, fright, extraordinary theories like vaccines are causative of autism, sterility and all other possible menaces on earth. People began to hear and read them even before they began to hear on MR vaccination campaign as such. A similar anti-vaccine emotion that was made to sprout in the community caused the recent outbreak of diphtheria last year. It caused many deaths in northern districts of Kerala. The anti-vaxxers were so keen to add the phrase 'religion specific depopulation' as an agenda behind vaccination which caused the severe decrease in vaccination among the Muslim community in northern Kerala. Even with religious scholars asking the community to go for it, the northern districts stand far behind in the percentage of MR vaccination. The naturopaths and a group called 'International Human Rights Association' based in Pala have made the maximum number of messages against vaccines through social media. Doctors on authentic Facebook pages like Info Clinic and Amrithakiranam had written a series of articles and released videos including live videos of doctors vaccinating their wards. That did have some impact. Still, the resistance continues.
Even now more than 60 percent of the target population is yet to be covered which seems challenging by the last day of the campaign which is on November 3, 2017. The messages have influenced the society so badly that a doctor who goes to take awareness class to parents has to counter the blunders on social media than explaining the relevance of preventing measles and rubella. Talking about measles deaths that occurred last year or congenital rubella syndrome is not making an impact on the general public. Instead, the fabricated horror tales have become so deep-rooted that health workers are afraid it may even affect the routine vaccination.
In this scenario, KGMOA, Ernakulam, filed a complaint with the cyber police cell against the "anti-vaccine movement" campaign on the social media. The programme is a matter of life and death to children. None has it in a prewritten form that their children will survive a measles attack or their next generation will not have to suffer deafness, blindness, cardiac defects and mental retardation of CRS all because a single shot of a simple vaccine was missed. It is so painful to see what happens when a tiny prick can save so many lives. We do not want our child to be one among those who succumb to pneumonia of a measles episode or congenital rubella syndrome. It is for this reason that the health community of Kerala emphasises on MR vaccine. Yes, our child means our world to us and our world would fall into a black hole without them, or even their disease would push us down the cliff of agony. Vaccination is the birthright of the child and no space online, or offline should throw them to the vulnerability of Measles, Rubella or any other vaccine-preventable disease. Routine vaccination and all vaccination programmes by the government should be strictly followed for their good. Let's vaccinate!
(The writer is the Ernakulam district secretary of KGMOA)
