The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s health department has detected 54 suspected cases of measles in Govandi slums in 48 hours this week, sources stated.
Moreover, deaths have been reported among kin in at least five localities in and near Govandi since September 2022 due to complications of the disease along with malnutrition.
If reports are to be believed, one child has reportedly died due to complications of the disease along with malnutrition. In addition, the child's two siblings, too, have died - all three children died within 48 hours - and this has prompted the BMC to carry out a special measles surveillance in the area.
As per BMC officials, one of the three children had died at home while the others died at hospital. A post-mortem was conducted for the child who died in BMC-run Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar but the report isn't yet available. The three children - two brothers aged five and three years and their 14-month-old cousin - were not vaccinated.
Owing to this, on Wednesday, November 9, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare decided to depute a high-level multi-disciplinary team to Mumbai to take stock of the upsurge in cases of measles in the city. The team will assist the State Health Authorities in instituting public health measures and facilitate operationalization of requisite control and containment measures.
A three-member Central team to Mumbai comprises of experts drawn from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), New Delhi, Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC), New Delhi and Regional Office for Health and Family Welfare, Pune, Maharashtra. The team is headed by Dr. Anubhav Srivastava, Deputy Director, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), NCDC.
The team will also undertake field visits to investigate the outbreak and assist the State Health Departments in terms of public health measures, management guidelines and protocols to manage the increasing cases of Measles being reported in Mumbai.
Meanwhile, in view of the outbreak, the civic body has started a vaccination drive in F/North, H/East, L, M/East and P/North wards in the city.
As per reports, the vaccination sessions are being conducted in Parel, Bandra East, Santacruz East, Kurla, Govandi, Chembur and Malad West areas due to a rise in measles, and rubella cases among children aged between zero to five years.
The drive was kick-started after the outbreak of measles in the area where they have found six confirmed cases and reported three suspected measles deaths in 48 hours. Most children are treated symptomatically based on the characteristic measles rash along with high fever and watery eyes.
For those unversed, measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus and can be fatal at times. An outbreak is a cluster of at least five cases from the same area, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the WHO website, unvaccinated young children are at highest risk of measles and its complications, including death. It says unvaccinated pregnant women are also at risk. Any non-immune person (who has not been vaccinated or was vaccinated but did not develop immunity) can become infected.
Measles is an acute viral respiratory illness with symptoms including high fever, cough, runny nose, skin rashes and is highly contagious.
Govandi slum have an estimated population of 12,564 and close to 3000 houses. While the six cases of measles were sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune, for testing and was confirmed, BMC said it is now starting to treat people for measles who are running fever and rashes symptoms.
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