Measles outbreak: Govt deploys three member team to Mumbai

Mumbai: In a bid to assess and manage the upsurge in measles cases in Mumbai, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has decided to depute a three-member high-level multi-disciplinary team in the city. The team will also undertake field visits to investigate the outbreak and assist the State Health Departments in terms of public health measures, management guidelines, and protocols to manage the increasing cases of Measles.

Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has decided to depute a high-level multi-disciplinary team to Mumbai to take stock of the upsurge in cases of Measles in the city.

The team will assist the State Health Authorities in instituting public health measures and facilitate operationalization of requisite control and containment measures.

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The 3 member Central team to Mumbai comprises of experts drawn from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), New Delhi, Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC), New Delhi and Regional Office for Health and Family Welfare, Pune, Maharashtra. The team is headed by Dr. Anubhav Srivastava, Deputy Director,Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), NCDC.

The team will also undertake field visits to investigate the outbreak and assist the State Health Departments in terms of public health measures, management guidelines and protocols to manage the increasing cases of Measles being reported in Mumbai.

Four wards in Mumbai are presently witnessing a measles outbreak, said Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as it continues its special screening drive in Govandi slum-in M-E ward along with conducting additional vaccination drive in these wards, reports Hindustan Times.

"In September, there were 26 cases and in October we saw 31 cases," said a BMC health official. Apart from these wards, L Ward (Kurla West), H East (Santacruz-East) also saw outbreaks in October, said BMC health official.three-member

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