Can measles vaccine cause death? No, says health minister Eknath Shinde

Allaying fears about the measles-rubella (MR) vaccine, the state government said an expert committee had ruled out any linkage between deaths of children after being administered the vaccine and the vaccination process. It had inferred that these deaths were due to other health complications like kidney and brain disorders.

This was stated by public health minister Eknath Shinde in the state legislative assembly on Tuesday while replying to a calling attention motion by Congress MLA from Mumbadevi Amin Patel, Congress MLA from Dhule Kunal Patil, and others.

Congress MLA from Mangalwedha Bharat Bhalke pointed to reports of children passing away after they were given the vaccine. However, Shinde said an expert committee had deduced that vaccination was not the cause of the deaths; the children died due to other health complications like kidney and brain diseases. "There were no deaths due to the vaccine," stressed Shinde.

The first dose of the vaccine is given to children in the age group of nine months and 12 months, followed up by a second dose between 16 to 24 months.

Shinde said in 2018-19, only a few cases of measles and rubella were reported from the state. Between January and May 2019, 19 and 16 suspected cases of measles were found in the P-North and F-South wards in Mumbai respectively. The vaccination program was launched in Mumbai and Maharashtra in November 2018. In the first phase, the campaign was conducted in civic-run and private schools, before moving to anganwadi centres and leftover children in the second phase.

In the first fortnight after the launch of the campaign, the vaccination drive achieved only 18% coverage in Mumbai. A few schools refused to participate in it but fell in line after being counselled by the education and health departments.

Of the 25,17,609 target given to the BMC, a total of 90.1% or 22,67,365 was achieved. In Maharashtra, 96% (2,78,67,801) of the around 2,90,51,734 crore target was achieved.

Shinde said a meeting of maulavis, religious heads, and public figures was organised at Islam Gymkhana to create awareness about the importance of the programme and its benefits. Campaign material was also published in Urdu. The drive was also given wide publicity.

According to the Union Ministry of Health Family Welfare, India is committed to the goal of measles elimination and control of rubella or CRS (congenital rubella syndrome) by 2020. Around 41 crore children will be covered under this measles-rubella campaign.

Last year, the Central government's Adverse Effect Following Immunisation (AEFI) Committee probing the death of four children during the measles-rubella vaccination drive in Gujarat said the deaths were not caused by the vaccine.