EMN
Dimapur, April 2
The meeting of the Kohima District Task Force for Mission Indradhanush was conducted on April 1 in the office chamber of the district deputy commissioner in the capital town.
During the meeting, the DPO Dr. Avile Zao gave report on the background and concept of Mission Indradhanush, phase-III. She stated that India had an annual birth cohort of 2.7 crore basing on available data sets such as recent surveys/monitoring data etc.
During the first and the second phase of Mission Indradhanush in 2015, a total of 20 lakh sessions were organised and more than 37 lakh children were fully immunized. Also, about 37 lakh pregnant women were vaccinated with Tetanus Toxoid (TT) vaccines, she said.
She also mentioned that the objective of riding on the success and learning from the mission during the first and second phases in 2015, the government of India had decided to continue with the initiative.
The third phase for 2016 to be launched on April 7 was with the main objective of accelerating the momentum by planning to target 50% of estimated 70 lakh partially-vaccinated or completely-unvaccinated children in the next wave of Mission Indradhanush.
The plan is to reach out to the 216 high focused districts across 27 states and union territories for achieving 90% coverage earlier than 2020, she said. The target population comprises children up to the age of 2 years to increase full immunization coverage, she said.
During the third phase, focus is to be given to 5 years old children also, and efforts are to be made to increase DPT booster coverage in addition to providing TT injections to pregnant women, she said.
Dr. Avile Zao also updated the meeting about ‘polio eradication,’ specifically about the switch from tOPV to bOPV on April 25. She said that India had achieved a landmark by eradicating polio.
The last case of polio in India was reported in January 2011 and India was officially certified polio free by the World Health Organization on March 27, 2014, she said.
The next step to eradicating polio from the world is by removing oral polio vaccines, she said. The switch will be coordinated globally and will take place in two weeks window from April 2016.
Dr. Zao also mentioned that in India, the National Switch Day will would be on April 25, when bOPV will replace tOPV.
Programme officers from the Social Welfare and Education departments also attended the meeting.
The chief medical officer of Kohima district, Dr. Avino Metha, also expressed the ‘need to create awareness and sensitize the public on immunization.’ Active participation and support from the concerned departments, nongovernmental organizations, community leaders, ward councils, and religious institutions was required for the successful implementation of the programme, the official said.
Mission Indradhanush
Mission Indradhanush was launched by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) Government of India on 25th December, 2014. The objective of this mission is to ensure that all children under the age of two years as well as pregnant women are fully immunized with seven vaccine preventable diseases.
Mission Indradhanush, depicting seven colours of the rainbow, targets to immunize all children against seven vaccine preventable diseases, namely, Diphtheria, Pertussis (Whooping Cough), Tetanus, Tuberculosis, Polio, Hepatitis B, and measles.
In addition, vaccines for Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Haemophilus influenzae type B (HIB) are also being provided in selected states.
