Measles vaccine

This refers to the letter by A Verma (1) lamenting the fact that not enough children take the oral polio vaccine in spite of it being available free of charge. Although in a few instances people may have resisted, in general they know that pulse polio gives a blanket cover to children and is bound to lower the incidence of the disease.

However, in my opinion, measles is a bigger culprit than polio. It is a major problem in developing countries, where malnutrition is widely prevalent. Babies who are less than six months are the most vulnerable and measles has many, sometimes fatal, complications. The measles vaccine should also be made available for free, especially at the district levels.