Meerut: Racing against time to shield lakhs of students from contagious measles and rubella diseases, health department teams are now going door-to-door in minority-dominated areas of western Uttar Pradesh to distribute pamphlets having appeals from religious heads of the minority community. In the pamphlets written in Hindi, the religious leaders have warned the people of their community against paying heed to “rumours” and asked them to get the vaccine administered to their children.The UP health department went into a tizzy when hundreds of madrassas in the region refused permission to administer measles-rubella vaccine to their students due to several “WhatsApp rumours”, exposing lakhs of kids to the deadly and contagious diseases. According to rumours , the vaccine may lead to impotency in children, a charge rubbished by the government.According to health department record, at least 70 such seminaries out of the total 272 in Meerut had refused entry to the teams.Meerut’s district immunization officer Dr Vishwas Chaudhary said: “People from the minority community are yet to accept that the vaccine is safe because of false WhatsApp messages. In this backdrop, we have come up with pamphlets which are being distributed door-to-door. These pamphlets have appeals from religious leaders and Muslim politicians asking people to get the vaccine administered.”The leaflets have appeals from national president of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind Maulana Arshad Madni, the city qazi, several heads of the madrassas and former cabinet minister Shahid Manzoor.Measles is a highly-contagious disease which spreads through coughing and sneezing. According to a government report, over 49,000 children were killed in 2015 due to it. Rubella, according to WHO, is a contagious, mild viral infection that occurs most often in children and young adults. Also, rubella is the leading vaccine-preventable cause of birth defects. Its infection in pregnant women may cause foetal death or congenital defects.Apart from Meerut, several madrassas in Saharanpur, Bijnor and Moradabad have also taken the same drastic step. In Bijnor, there are 81,000 students studying in 665 madrassas. Out of these, 31,000 students have not been vaccinated.The health department has taken similar steps there also.Bijnor CMO Dr Rakesh Mittal said: “We have made information brochures, which are being distributed from door-to-door.”

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