Are Teachers/Motivators in Schools Aware of MR Vaccination?:A Study in a City of South India

Introduction: Measles is a major killer disease and Rubella leads to lifelong birth defects. In India, every year nearly 2.7 million children get measles and over 4000 children are born in India with such birth defects (Congenital Rubella Syndrome).The mortality and morbidity of measles and rubella is not declining a significant level in recent years. To bring it down, government of India has planned a massive vaccination campaign on measles and rubella among children (9 months to 15 years). School based immunization was a part of the strategy.

Method: This study aimed at assessing the awareness of MR vaccination among principals and teachers in 90 schools in Trichy, using a self-administered questionnaire and the results were compiled and analyzed.

Result: The results showed that 94.4%of the study group was aware of the disease with the main source of awareness being media and social workers which accounted for 38.9%. The results showed that 78.9% people were convinced that measles and rubella is a big burden to our country. Respondents strongly felt that health education regarding MR vaccine was necessary in order to eradicate measles and rubella. IEC activities, Training Programs can be aimed at improving the knowledge about MR Vaccination to the school teachers. Teachers can be trained to conduct Counseling sessions to increase the acceptance rate