Authorities report that 12 children in Mumbai, a city in western India, and its surrounding areas have died from measles.

Around October 26 and 27, three children died in 48 hours. This was the first death that was reported.

The city had 233 confirmed cases as of Wednesday, which is a significant increase from the 92 cases and two deaths that were reported last year.

Authorities say that the rise in infections is partly due to the slow vaccination drive during the Covid pandemic.

The most recent fatality, announced on Tuesday, was of an eight-month-old baby who was only partially immunized, according to a news release from the local municipal body.

Measles is significantly more contagious than Covid and can cause serious consequences, particularly in children younger than five years.

Two doses of the mumps, measles, and rubella (MMR) vaccine can prevent the disease, which causes coughing, rashes, and fever.

The MMR vaccine has been slow to catch on in several nations, causing a number of major outbreaks.

If they haven’t been vaccinated and are exposed to it, nine out of ten people can get it.

In addition to causing a distinctive rash, measles can cause life-threatening consequences such as pneumonia and brain inflammation and is sometimes deadly.

Getting vaccinated can get rid of almost all of these dangers.

The MMR vaccine, given in two doses, provides approximately 88% protection against mumps and 99% protection against measles and rubella.

It is more difficult for the disease to spread between people when a large portion of the population is vaccinated.

However, there has been a worrying decline in the proportion of kids receiving these vaccinations on time since the start of the Covid pandemic.

In 2020, 23 million children did not receive the recommended childhood vaccinations. According to Unicef, that’s the highest number since 2009 and 3.7 million more than in 2019.

Due to the outbreak, around 20,000 children in Mumbai did not receive their measles vaccination on time.

The executive health officer for Mumbai, Dr. Mangala Gomare, told The Indian Express newspaper that “now, we are tracking all these children and holding vaccination camps on priority.”

Health officials claim that the drive is also being hampered by other problems like vaccine reluctance.

A health volunteer named Shreya Salvi told the newspaper that “after vaccination, some children develop mild fever and pain in the injected area, so parents don’t let them get vaccinated.” 

Image Credit:  Sunil Ghosh/Hindustan Times via Getty Images