No shortage of measles vaccines in the UAE

Gulf News

Children are given one dose at one year and a booster after two years. Has your child had their measles vaccination? Visit gulfnews.combfor more details. #WHO #gulfnews #measles

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00:00Hello readers, this is Sachitra Bajpai Choudhury, senior reporter from Gulf News. Measles has

00:10made a reappearance in the world. Earlier, four countries in Europe which were declared

00:17measles free were suddenly found to have high cases of measles. These were Albania, UK,

00:24Greece and Czech Republic. So suddenly there has been a new interest in measles as a disease.

00:33Now what is measles? Measles is a disease or an outbreak, a contagious disease where

00:38you get fever and rash. Children are affected by it and it affects the respiratory tubes

00:44and it affects the lungs. In most cases it's quite serious and several times there have

00:48been fatalities also. It can cause pneumonia, it can cause neurological complications. Why

00:55are we talking about measles? Because children are supposed to get their first measles vaccination

01:01at the age of one, exactly at their first birthday. So the thing is that it is given

01:06as a combination vaccine, which is MMR, measles mumps and rubella. So the first dose is given

01:13on the first birthday of a child and then you get a booster dose any time between 18

01:18months to five years. Once you've done that, you're measles free. But why is it that people

01:23are not compliant to this very simple schedule? The thing is that there has been a lot of

01:30anti-vaccination drive going on. Lots of people believe that MMR vaccines cause autism or

01:38they kind of compromise the immunity of the child, which has never been proven. This was

01:42something in the 90s. So there have been lobbies who are resisting vaccination and that is

01:47why measles has reappeared in certain pockets of the world. We are talking about this here

01:53because in UAE as well, children get their vaccinations in hospitals or clinics after

01:57their birth. There is no shortage of vaccines in UAE for measles and we're just kind of

02:03educating the parents why it's important to be compliant with the vaccination schedule

02:08of your child. So you do the vaccination, you get a card as soon as your child is born

02:12and then you know exactly the dates when you're required to go and get the vaccinations done.

02:18Now a child who goes to school gets his booster dose in school. But in case if you come here

02:23for the first time and you are sort of looking for a vaccination place to where a child can

02:28get a vaccination, you can get it at any of the primary health centres. You can go to

02:33a clinic and get it. And if you're not covered by chance by an insurance, then you have to

02:37pay a nominal 50 dirhams for a measles vaccination. So for something which is not expensive but

02:44it is very necessary, you must be compliant to it and make sure that your child gets it

02:49because not getting the vaccination can really push back your child's health with the kind

02:55of complications that can occur. We have written about all this in Gulf News. You can grab

03:00a copy. It's come out today or you can read it online on gulfnews.com.

03:07For more information visit www.gulfnews.co.uk

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