Govt. launches special vaccination programme

In a bid to promote vaccination, the Union Government has launched its four-week special immunisation programme in high-risk areas across the country. The vaccination sessions, which started in April, will be held for a week each in June, July and August.

Encouraging state counterparts and development partners to focus on vaccines that are provided free of cost under the Universal Immunisation Programme, Anuradha Gupta, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said the programme was aimed at reaching every child.

Though full immunisation prevents approximately 4 lakh deaths from vaccine preventable diseases in the under-five category every year , Government data suggests close to 75 lakh children miss childhood vaccinations each year. Globally, every fifth child is not immunised.

Gupta, who is also the Mission Director of the National Rural Health Mission, launched a new communication campaign to promote the cause. The first special immunisation week, which took place from April 24-30, was organised in collaboration with Unicef.

The year 2012-13 has been declared as the ‘Year of intensification of routine immunisation'. Intensification efforts saw the expansion of the Pentavalent vaccine to six more states, after Tamil Nadu and Kerala. “Pentavalent vaccine expansion is India's call to action. The vaccine protects children from Hib pneumonia and Hib meningitis in addition to diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and Hepatitis B,”' said Rakesh Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

In a statement, Louis-Georges Arsenault, Unicef India representative said, “Inequity persists within and between states in India. There are geographical, rural-urban, poor-rich, gender and other related differences in vaccination coverage”'.