Nagpur Clubs - Rotary intensifies fight against Rubella infection in pregnant women

 NAGPUR: German measles or Rubella infection in pregnant woman can severely affect the unborn child, including risk of causing many congenital (by birth) diseases like heart defects, corneal
blindness and arthritis. But not many parents, young girls or married women are aware that Rubella vaccine, taken anytime by a girl after the age of 14-15 till her first pregnancy, can prevent these problems.

Rotary Club, in collaboration with gynaecologists and paediatricians, has been promoting a booster dose of Rubella vaccine in the city for the past ten years. Rotary District Governor 3030 Sanjay Meshram told TOI that last year 15,000 girls were given the vaccine in Chandrapur district alone under the project. "We get the vaccine at subsidized rate from the Serum Institute of India, Pune. Though the vaccine costs Rs50-60, since it is given in large numbers the Rotary Club puts in matching grant and gives it free-of-cost to schoolgirls, especially from economically backward classes," he said.

This year, the 3030 district plans to give this vaccine to as many as 1 lakh girls across 85 clubs in the district. The Rubella Vaccine project was started in 2000 by the Rotary Club of Nagpur West with surgeon Dr Satish Deshmukh as convener. Now, it is a district 3030 project. The gynaecologists and paediatricians help the clubs in creating awareness about the importance of the booster dose of the vaccine for adolescent girls.

Dr Ujjwala Deshmukh, a practicing obstetrician and gynaecologist who has been promoting the vaccination at individual as well as organisational level, said, "Though every child is given the MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) vaccine, a booster dose is necessary in girls during adolescence to prevent the virus from targeting the unborn child during pregnancy."

The Rubella virus is a very dormant and non-virulent one. But if a pregnant woman is accidentally exposed to the virus, the mother does not suffer but the child in the womb can have severe effects on brain causing corneal opacity leading to blindness, mental retardation or any other neurological damage, dub and deafness, congenital heart defects. "The booster dose creates antibodies in the woman's body for 15-20 years, which indirectly means her entire child-bearing period. I always tell any newly married woman or a young girl visiting me to take the vaccine. Counselling parents also helps," said Dr Deshmukh, who is also former president of the Nagpur Obstetrics and Gynaecological Society (NOGS). She pointed out that a research in Chennai has shown that most deaf and dumb children were exposed to the virus before birth.

NOGS president Dr Ankita Kothe informed that NOGS members have been creating awareness about the importance of the vaccine during various diagnostic and treatment camps for the last many years. Dr Madhusudan Sarda, who has worked as coordinator of the Rubella project of Rotary East, said the club is gradually expanding its reach to more and more girls in schools and colleges. Dr Bhagyalaxmi Rajan, a paediatrician, said convincing parents also helps. "Mothers nowadays have at least heard of Rubella and hence easily agree for giving the vaccine to their daughters," she said.