Adverse Events Following Measles and Rubella Vaccination Campaign in Children Aged 9 Months to 5 Years: Experience from An Urban Health Centre of Delhi

Abstract

Background: Measles was responsible for an estimated 49,200 deaths among under-five- years- old children in India in the year 2015. In India, according to the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5 survey, 2019- 21), coverage of measles-containing vaccines (MCV), MCV-1 & MCV-2, at age 12-23 months was 88% & 59%, respectively. The MR (Measles & Rubella) vaccination campaign was launched to achieve the goal of measles elimination.
Aim: The study was aimed to record the various AEFIs among vaccine recipients during MR vaccination campaign through active surveillance.
Methodology: This was a prospective observational study. Five hundred forty children were vaccinated with the MR vaccine during the campaign. We included 530 children in our study as 10 children were lost
to follow-up. All the patients were followed up for 30 days post-vaccination. A combination of door-to-door and telephonic surveys was adopted to find out AEFIs among the vaccine recipients. All information was noted on a predesigned case record form, and collected data were transferred to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for analysis.
Results: a total of 82 (15.47%) AEFIs were reported, of which 74 (90.24%) were in the initial 7 days and 8 (9.75%) were reported in the next 21days. Of the AEFIs reported, the most common was fever (36.6%), followed by local swelling at the injection site (30.5%), upper respiratory tract infection (21.9%), skin rash (6.1%), gastrointestinal
symptoms including diarrhoea and vomiting (3.7%) and seizure (1.2%).
Conclusions: Active surveillance may help in finding and reporting the minor adverse events that could have been missed in the passive reporting of AEFIs by the parents. The MR vaccine introduced in the campaign is found to be largely safe for use among children aged 9 months to 5 years except for a few adverse reactions. We recommend further studies with a larger sample size along with prolonged follow-up
to evaluate the delayed and rare AEFIs.

How to cite this article:
Singh M, Nag V K. Adverse Events Following Measles and Rubella Vaccination Campaign in Children Aged 9 Months to 5 Years: Experience from An Urban Health Centre of Delhi. J Commun Dis. 2025;57(2):13-18.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24321/0019.5138.202532