Centre issues alert on measles; deploys high-level teams in Gujarat, Kerala & Jharkhand

In view of the growing cases of measles among the children, the Centre on Wednesday deployed high-level teams to Ranchi (Jharkhand), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), and Malappuram (Kerala) to assess and manage the situation, the PTI reported. India's health ministry, at a briefing, notified that recently deployed teams will probe the rising trend of measles cases and will assist in tackling the disease to prevent it from spreading. 

"They [the teams] will assist the state health authorities in investigating the outbreak and facilitate the operationalization of requisite control and containment," the health ministry said in a statement. 

A potential 'storm' of measles cases worldwide

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) had earlier issued a joint warning over a potential "storm" of measles cases worldwide. It alerted that there has been a significant rise of the disease by a nearly 80% in 2022 compared to 2021.

"The sharp rise of the illness indicated that other significant outbreaks are likely to take place in the coming days," the statement from the global health organization read. Last week, a one-year-old boy passed away battling measles in Mumbai as the outbreak of the viral infection in the city has been on the rise. An estimated 126 children have contracted the disease so far this year, civic officials said, according to the PTI agency. The deceased boy hailed from the Null Bazar area. He underwent treatment at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation-run Kasturba Hospital in Chinchpokli since last week and later died,  an official told the agency reporters. 

The doctors in Mumbai said that "septicemia with acute renal failure with measles bronchopneumonia" was the cause of the child's death. Measles has been spreading at a fast pace, and by September as many as 99 children were already found infected with the viral disease. A total 126 kids have been infected since January this year, the civic body's bulletin reportedly informed. 

UNICEF had also warned that children are now more vulnerable as measles cases spiked this year in 2022. While the countries continued to struggle and eliminate the novel coronavirus pandemic, children worldwide were left without protection against measles, it said. At least 23 million children missed out on their mandatory childhood vaccinations in 2020, which is 3.7 million more than in 2019, according to estimates by UNICEF.