EMN
Dimapur, April 6
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Government of India is working toward reducing child mortality and morbidity in the country by providing and improving full immunization coverage through the Universal Immunization Programme.
India’s largest Immunization programme launched in 1985 is one of the largest health programs of its kind in the world catering to a birth cohort of 2.7 crores children annually. The programme provides vaccination against seven (7) life threatening diseases which are diphtheria, whoopping cough, tetanus, olio, tuberculosis, measles and Hepatitis-B in the entire country.For Nagaland, the central government has selected 6 districts as high-focus districts. They are Kohima, Dimapur, Wokha, Kiphire, Tuensang and Mon district. “Special Immunization drive will be conducted in these districts on the 7th day of the month for 7 consecutive days which will continue for four months starting from 7th April 2015,” the Health & Family Welfare department stated in a press release issued on Monday.
Despite being successful in containing polio cases in our country with ample assistance form WHO and UNICEF and the fact that the effort being put to control the other vaccines preventable diseases for the last thirty(30) years, only 65% children in India received all vaccines during their first year of life. The figure is much lower in our state which is 46%. It is estimated that annually more than 89 lakhs children in the country do not receive all vaccines that are available under UIP, the highest number compared with any other country in the world.
As a strategic endeavor, the Ministry of health & Family Welfare, Government of India, launched Mission Indradhanush in the month of December 2014 to achieve more than 90% full coverage in the country by 2020.
Evidence shows that unimmunized and partially immunized children are more susceptible to childhood diseases and disability and runs a risk of 3-6 times higher than fully immunized children. Recent evaluation has indicated that the major reason for inability to reach vaccines to children in our country is due to lack of awareness among the parents about the benefits of vaccination and fear of adverse events following vaccination.
Under mission Indradhanush, the Government has indentified 201 high focus districts across the country that has nearly 50% of all unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children in the country.
“In our state of Nagaland, the government of India has selected 6 districts as high focus districts. They are Kohima, Dimapur, Wokha, Kiphire, Tuensang and Mon district,” the directorate of Health & Family Welfare stated.
Universal immunization of all unreached children under the age of two years will be taken up in the district on a mission mode from Tuesday under the Central Government programme – Mission Indradhanush.
The Mission Indradhanush, depicting seven colors of the rainbow, aims at covering all those children by 2020 who are either unvaccinated or are partially vaccinated against seven vaccine preventable diseases which include diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis B.
