KOCHI: The poor inoculation rate registered by the state’s northern districts in the Measles-Rubella (MR) vaccination drive should be viewed against the backdrop of the socio-economic conditions prevailing there instead of merely attributing it to religious reasons, healthcare experts have said. The focus of the debate shifted to religious grounds as the top five Muslim- populated districts of Malappuram (70.24 pc) Kozhikode(39.24 pc) Kasargod(37.34 pc) , Palakkad(29.93 pc) and Kannur(29.43 pc) performed poorly, with Malappuram recording a measly 40.3 per cent vaccinations. This is despite the public support extended by several influential political and religious leaders belonging to the Muslim community through the social media. However, in terms of the number of vaccinations, Malappuram ranks second only to Thiruvananthapuram.
“The area’s socio-economic conditions must get precedence over the distribution of the population according to religion. If religion was indeed an issue, then Lakshadweep could not have achieved the target in the first phase of immunisation. It is the spread of falsehoods mainly due to a lack of scientific temper in the society which is to blame,” said Dr P S Jinesh, who is actively campaigning for the MR Vaccine.“Most of these messages are translations of writings by Andrew Wakefield, a former British gastroenterologist, and medical researcher. The research findings were later found to be ‘false.’ I’m sure it did not work in the case of Lakshadweep,” he said.
Jinesh said there is not an iota of truth in the reports linking the MR vaccine with autism. “Autism, which can be identified within 18 months, is a neurodevelopmental disorder. However, the vaccination is given between nine months and 15 years,” he said.Shimna Azeez, a Malappuram-based medical doctor, at the vanguard of the MR campaign said, “ A few years ago, Malappuram was blamed for its lack of educational opportunities. Now you can see there is a lot of improvement in the district on the education front and even several outstanding students who have won laurels.
However, just like other parts of the Malabar region, it has a patriarchal mindset. Hence, even if an educated woman has a positive attitude towards immunisation, she may not be in a position to bypass her husband. This will affect more in a closely-knit society. Moreover, the anti-vaccine campaigners are cashing in on the insecurity prevailing in the community.” According to her, the campaign against the vaccination drive affected the immunisation campaign in the district on Wednesday. “Today I visited three schools and two of them recorded only 10.5 and 21.5 per cent vaccinations, respectively. This is clearly the fallout of the messages,” she said. On Thursday, in a school which Dr Shimna visited, just one out of the 65 students turned up for vaccination.
Vaccines, including the one for MR Vaccination, are manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd. “It is accredited by the WHO and is being used in around 170 countries across the globe in their national immunisation programs,” Dr. Shimna said. It is estimated about 65 per cent of the children across the globe receive at least one vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute.
Over 3.3 crore children were vaccinated in the first phase of the MR Vaccination with 97 per cent in the intended age group getting inoculated. Muslim-majority Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, and Puducherry were covered in the maiden phase.Earlier, Wakefield was struck off the UK Medical Register for misconduct for coming out with the now-discredited claim there was a link between the administration of the measles, mums, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, and the onset of autism and bowel disease.