Measles-Rubella Elimination Campaign (2025-26)

Prelims – Current events of national and international importance.

Mains (GS II) – Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Why in news?

Recently, Union Health Minister launched the National Zero Measles-Rubella Elimination Campaign on first day of the World Immunization Week (24-30 April)

• Launched by – Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• Objective – To achieve 100% immunization coverage to provide high quality life to children by administering them with two doses of Measles and Rubella vaccine.
• It is a significant step towards India's goal of eliminating Measles and Rubella by 2026.

Campaign Activities

• Awareness programs – Intensive IEC (Information, Education, and Communication) outreach campaign about vaccination in multilingual formats.
• Data-based surveillance – By leveraging the data available from Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP) and the U-WIN digital platform.

The Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP) launched in 2004 with World Bank assistance is a nationwide disease surveillance system to detect and monitor diseases, enabling timely policy decisions.

• Targeted vaccination – To reach out to remote and hard to reach areas, slums, migratory population, areas with frequent outbreaks.
• Achieve and maintain high population immunity with at least 95% vaccination coverage with 2 doses of measles and rubella containing vaccines in each district of the country.

The Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) is the world's largest vaccination program for pregnant women and newborns providing protection against 12 vaccine-preventable diseases.

India’s progress in Measles & Rubella (MR) elimination

• Current MR vaccination coverage in India:
  • First dose MR vaccination - 93.7%
  • Second dose MR vaccination - 92.2%
• Reduction in MR cases – In 2024, India has recorded a decline of 73% in Measles cases and a 17% reduction in Rubella cases in comparison with 2023.

Reference

PIB| Zero Measles-Rubella Elimination Campaign