Princis still unsure of parents’ nod for rubella vaccination

Nagpur: With the mass vaccination programme for rubella and measles in schools getting underway from November 27, CBSE schools were called for a special meet with government officials on Wednesday to fine tune the process. Principals, whose representative attended the meet, told TOI they would still leave it to the parents whether or not they want their wards vaccinated or not.
A CBSE principal said, “It’s a wonderful initiative by the government but I have a responsibility to act only after taking consent from parents, since this concerns their child’s health. We will be sending circular to all parents informing them about the vaccination drive. If they want to opt out because their kids have already been vaccinated, proof must be submitted for the same.”

Another principal agreed. “At CBSE schools, parents are extremely vocal and I can foresee a major problem if they are not given an opportunity to opt out of the immunization drive. We will be asking them to submit a medical certificate from their paediatrician that clearly mentions the child has been vaccinated for rubella and measles and does not require another dose,” said the principal.

Dr Mohd Sajid, who is overseeing the drive on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO), said this was a massive operation as just over 10 lakh students would be covered. Dr Sajid said, “We are collecting data on pre-primary schools. It is a big challenge because these institutes are not required to register with the education department. A rough estimate is that almost 700 such institutes are operating in the district. We will have to find out each one by scanning every single road in the city.”

He added that in the first phase they will be visiting schools and covering all of them regardless of board affiliation or geographical issues.