M Sanklecha

I read the article "Introduction Strategy of a Second Dose Measles Containing Vaccine in India" [1] with great interest. The move, when enforced, may lead to a lot of confusion in the recommendations between the public and the private sector.

In the private sector, pediatricians are already administering the measles vaccine at 9 months followed by MMR at 15 months and an MMR booster at either 5 years or 9-12 years. In fact, even the routine immunization protocol in Delhi, Puducherry, Goa and Sikkim already use the MMR vaccine as the second dose in the second year of (life and not the measles vaccine).

I wonder what lead to the recommendation of a second dose of measles vaccine and not MMR as the second dose in the second year. If the entire government machinery had been used to push through MMR as the recommended dose in the second year, it would have lead to a wider protection against more diseases while at the same time achieving a uniformity of recommendations between the private and the public sector. With the new recommendations, if I now have a child coming to me who has already taken 2 doses of the measles vaccine at 9 months and 18 months, I would end up giving him 2 more doses of measles in the form of MMR going by the current recommendations for the MMR vaccine.