Dhangadi, February 2
Kailali was declared a fully vaccinated district in 2017. After Dhangadi Sub-Metropolitan City was declared 'fully vaccinated', the entire district was also declared fully vaccinated two days later in July that year. A few months later, the entire Sudurpaschim Province was announced 'fully inoculated'.
The concept of fully-inoculated status was conceived with a view to ensuring that all children receive the entire gamut of vaccines to be provided by the government so that they could be safe from various diseases. This concept started from 2012.
Though the status means all children have received the free vaccines provided by the government, quite surprisingly three children in Ward No 1 of Dhangadi Sub-Metropolitan City were infected with measles yesterday. "Of the four samples we had sent for test, three were confirmed with measles," said Dhangadi Sub-Metropolitan City's health section chief Yogesh Awasthi.
Health Office Kailali Chief Lal Bahadur Dhami commented on the measles cases, saying the cases had raised question over the status of full inoculation. "Any place can be declared fully inoculated only if all the kids have access to vaccines, but the recent measles cases have shown that not all kids have in access to vaccines," he said.
The confirmed two cases are boys aged 4 and 6, while the age of another case, a girl, wasn't revealed. "While the six-year-old boy is said to have been inoculated once when he was nine months old, the four-year-old boy is said to have not received a single dose of measles vaccine as his entire family had gone to India when he was just four months old and couldn't return to Nepal due to COVID-19 restrictions," Awasthi said. After they had fever two weeks ago, four kids were taken to Seti Zonal Hospital in Dhangadi for checkup.
It was at the hospital that the children were suspected to be suffering from measles.
After their samples were sent to Kathmandu for test, three samples were confirmed with the disease.
Meanwhile, a vaccination campaign has been launched from today in the area where it was seen in a bid to eliminate the disease.
A version of this article appears in the print on February 3, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
