Include mumps vaccine in EPI

Measles, Mumps and Rubella -- all these three diseases are very contagious and common in our country. The ill effects of these diseases as well as their complications are so severe that people who suffered from these diseases can well remember their hazards e.g. mumps has very bad complications including inflammation of testes in males and ovaries in females as a result of which many people in our country suffer from sterility in the long run, but to our utter disappointment our Health Department did not include the mumps vaccine in the Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI), rather they have included only measles  and rubella vaccines in their vaccination programme. If the government added the mumps vaccination to the programme, thousands of children, especially the underprivileged, could have preventive measures against this contagious disease. So, our earnest request to the government is to include mumps vaccine i.e. MMR vaccines instead of MR vaccines in EPI.
Dr. Ahmad Munir Hussain, MBBS
Medical Officer
Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, Dhaka