Kerala Measles surge: Administration in Malappuram to administer vaccine to all children by Dec 5
Malappuram (PTI): All children in Malappuram district will be administered doses of measles and rubella vaccines by December 5, District Collector V R Premkumar said on Saturday.
In the wake of a rise in measles cases among children in Malappuram district, the Kerala government had on Friday urged parents to ensure that their children are vaccinated without any fail. Known as 'ancham pani' in local parlance, measles mainly affects children.
Premkumar said the spread of measles can be controlled only through vaccination.
At a district development meeting held here, Premkumar urged all representatives and government officials to engage in implementing preventive measures and warned those who spread fake messages against vaccination of stern action.
Malappuram district authority, in a release, said as part of the preventive measures, use of masks and sanitisers has been made compulsory in schools and Anganwadis. District Medical Officer K Renuka informed the meeting that a total of 140 measles cases have been reported from the district till now.
The release said that there are 1,16,994 children in the state who are yet to receive the second dose of vaccination in the state.
"There are 776 children who are yet to take the vaccine from Kalpakanjeri region from where the most number of cases have been reported till now," the release said.
The Union Health Ministry on Wednesday had asked states to consider administering an additional dose of measles and rubella vaccines to all children aged nine months to five years in vulnerable areas.
Health Minister Veena George had said that the department was taking stringent measures for prevention of the disease and an Additional Director (public health) has already been sent to the district for coordinating preventive measures.
A virus infection that mainly affects young children, measles is mostly seen among those belonging to the age group between six months to three years. However, the disease affects teenagers and adults as well.
Earlier this week, the Centre deployed high-level teams to Malappuram, Ranchi (Jharkhand), and Ahmedabad (Gujarat) to assess and manage increase in number of measles cases among children in these cities.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
