Mysuru: Noticing a trend that Muslim parents remained away from getting Rubella vaccination administered to their children, a doctor hailing from the same community took the onus of convincing the parents to make sure their childen take the medication to protect themselves from deadly disease causing virus.
Dr Mohommed Shiraz Ahmed, District Family Planning Officer made sure he was convincing panic-stricken parents to say yes for the vaccination.
On Tuesday, due to rumors of death and kids falling ill post vaccination, the parents residing in Rajeevnagar, Shanthinagar, Ghosianagar and Kyathmaranahalli didn’t come forward to vaccinate their children. Among 45,000 children in the area, some 70 got vaccinated on Tuesday. DHO Dr Basavaraj along with Dr Shiraz went to these areas and managed to create awareness among people. Dr Siraj through loud speaker and pamphlet in Urdu created awareness about importance of vaccination. With the support from local corporator Akram Pasha he also went to various schools and even conveyed meeting among the elders in the community.
On Wednesday and Thursday due to his effort many parents in these areas came forward to vaccinate their children. Nearly 800 children were vaccinated in these areas on Wednesday and Thursday. Speaking to Newskarnataka Dr Mohammed Shiraz Ahmed said “On Tuesday, due to rumors that children who got vaccinated fell ill, people in the said areas were reluctant to send their wards to school and get them vaccinated. Many people in these areas are also from Kerala; some of them mentioned that they received message from their relatives and friends from Kerala that children are falling ill after having Rubella and Measles vaccine. There were also rumors that to reduce the population of minority, such injection is been given. To instill confidence among the people we even paraded few children who were vaccinated with Rubella and Measles vaccine. Only after all these efforts, the people were confident enough to get their kids vaccinated.”
Dr Maheshwarappa, who is looking into Public Health Centre in Kyathmaranahalli said that there are nearly 24,400 children attached to the health centre. “On Tuesday due to rumors, most of the parents resisted for vaccination but on Wednesday and Thursday more than 400 children were vaccinated”.
