Mumbai: Govandi mosques to start talking about measles, vaccination

Responding to the BMC's call for help, all mosques in Govandi will start making announcements on the need to vaccinate children from today. In view of the growing number of measles cases in M East ward, which covers Govandi and Deonar and has a significant Muslim population, civic officials on Thursday met local religious leaders.

Imams of 32 mosques in the vicinity attended the meeting called by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Local doctors, WHO representatives, medical officers, civic health workers along with Assistant Municipal Commissioner of the ward Mahendra Ubale were present at the meeting. The health professionals informed the maulanas about measles and rubella and how vaccines can help protect children from these diseases. Civic officials then appealed to them to convey this message to the community.

A senior health official of BMC said, "The majority of the population in Govandi is Muslim and the parents hesitate to get their children vaccinated. Many believe that vaccination will hurt their children, which is a myth. To deal with these, we first held meetings with madrassas and now are taking help of Muslim religious leaders at the ward level. We organised a meeting with the imams and maulanas at M East ward office on Thursday."

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As per BMC officials, the slums in M East ward are the worst hit by the measles outbreak with one-third of the city's total cases reported from here. In addition, six of the seven suspected measles deaths were reported in Govandi. Many of the patients here were found to be partially vaccinated or not immunised at all.

Mufti Mohammad Subhan Ashraf of Rafi Nagar Kabristan Masjid, who was present at the meeting, said, "The BMC has roped in Imams to help with a public health issue and we will extend all possible help from our end. We will try to dispel the myths and confusion regarding vaccination amid our community and ask people to get their children immunised. We will start our appeals with Friday prayers."

Maulana Taufiq Azmi Misbahi, imam of Sunni Mohammadi Masjid, drew BMC's attention to the poor garbage collection in the vicinity and urged the civic body to issue letters to the trustees of all the mosques in the vicinity asking them to help raise public awareness on measles and vaccine.

In figures

As per data released by state health officials, measles outbreaks have been reported in other parts of Maharashtra as well. There are a total of 506 confirmed cases across the state, of which 164 or 32 per cent are from Mumbai. Meanwhile, with another suspected measles death in the city, the total number has now reached eight. As many as 14 outbreaks have been reported in the city with 1,259 suspected cases.

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No of Imams who attended the meeting