Measles and Rubella Champion Award

The Measles and Rubella Partnership presents the Measles and Rubella Champion Award to recognize India’s efforts to prevent measles and rubella.

About Measles and Rubella Partnership:

• The Measles and Rubella Partnership comprises a multi-agency planning committee, including the American Red Cross, BMGF, GAVI, US CDC, UNF, UNICEF, and WHO, all dedicated to reducing global measles deaths and preventing rubella illness.

India’s achievement:

• The award recognizes India’s unwavering commitment to public health and its exemplary leadership in curbing the spread of Measles and Rubella, particularly among children.
• India has provided regional leadership to the measles & rubella elimination programme by using ‘measles as a tracer’ to strengthen routine immunization under country’s Universal Immunization Programme (UIP).
• The Government of India has implemented proactive Measles-Rubella (MR) vaccination campaigns in high-risk areas.
  • Measles and Rubella are vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) and MR Vaccine is part of India’s Universal Immunization Programme since 2017.

About Measles and Rubella:

• Measles and rubella are both viral diseases that can cause serious health complications, birth defects, and even death.

Measles:

• It is a highly contagious, acute viral respiratory illness.
• Spreads through the air by respiratory droplets produced from coughing or sneezing by the infected person.
• Symptoms include cough, runny nose, inflamed eyes, sore throat, fever and a red, blotchy skin rash.
• There’s no specific medical treatment for measles.

Rubella:

• It is a contagious viral infection that can cause birth defects.
• It is also known as German measles or three-day measles.
• Caused by the rubella virus and spreads when people breathe in virus-infected fluid or direct contact with nasal or throat secretions of infected individuals.
• Symptoms includes mild fever, headache, sore throat, nausea, and tender lymph nodes.
• There’s no treatment to get rid of an established infection.

Vaccine

• The measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine protects against measles, mumps, and rubella diseases.
• MR is a combination vaccine, which protects against measles and rubella diseases.

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