The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has extended the ongoing national immunisation campaign against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), until November 30.
The ministry received a number of requests asking for the extension of the campaign, according to officials.
Some 150,000 children have been vaccinated as part of the ongoing immunisation drive that began here October 17. The campaign has covered 320 schools which include 214 government schools and 106 private ones.
The drive has been a success with huge demand from parents to vaccinate their children. Added to this, the vaccination unit at MoPH has been receiving high volume of phone calls requesting the extension of the campaign activities. So the ministry decided to extend the campaign at the level of various healthcare facilities till the end of the month.
Parents can take their children to get vaccinated in all primary healthcare facilities in Qatar, Qatar petroleum medical centres, the Ras Gas health facilities in Al Khor region and various private healthcare facilities.
MoPH has urged all parents with children between the age of one and 13 years who were not yet vaccinated as part of the campaign to take their children to any of the medical facilities to avail the booster dose free of charge. This is to ensure maximum immunity in the children and to put check on the diseases.
MoPH has ensured that the campaign complies with the highest standards and highest quality in vaccination administration. This has had great impact on the fact that no serious side effects have been recorded even with the high number of children being vaccinated daily.
The campaign is part of Qatar’s efforts to eliminate mumps, measles and rubella by 2020, which is in line with World health Organisation’s targets. Though according to Qatar’s vaccination schedules, children should be given two MMR shots at 12 and 18 months of age, a few of the children do not develop sufficient immunity against the diseases after the first or the second dose. Hence the third MMR booster dose is important, according to MoPH officials.
