Government to intensify efforts to reach every last child with vaccination

Immunization communication campaign launched during Special Immunization Week

The new eye catching logo for the Immunization communication campaign

NEW DELHI, 29 April: To create awareness on the urgency to vaccinate every eligible child and intensify efforts to improve RI coverage, the Government of India has launched Special Immunization Weeks. Four weeks, with one week each in the months of April, June, July and August will be used to hold special immunization sessions in high-risk areas across the country.

Each year full immunization prevents approximately 4 lakh under-five deaths from vaccine preventable diseases in India. But close to 75 lakh children every year miss the benefits of childhood vaccinations. A majority of those missing the opportunity are from among underserved and marginalized populations. Being unvaccinated keeps them at highest risk of catching life-threatening childhood diseases. Globally, every fifth child is unimmunized.

“The Special Immunization Week is an opportunity to reinforce India’s Call to Action for child survival and development,” said Anuradha Gupta, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Mission Director, National Rural Health Mission, while launching a new communication campaign in the presence of media, development partners, and health officials at the India Habitat Centre.

(From Left-to-Right) Dr. Rakesh Kumar-Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Anuradha Gupta-NHRM, Louis-Georges Arsenault, Unicef representative to india

The new communication campaign comprises a new RI logo, TV spot, radio spot and posters. The media event, organized in collaboration with UNICEF, was part of the first Special Immunization Week (April 24-30) awareness initiative.

Only vaccinations can save the world

From: Amar Ujjala

Immunization: The Big Picture

Immunization is one of the most successful and cost-effective public health interventions. According to the latest data, in 2011, global efforts to immunize children with vaccines against life-threatening diseases reached 107 million children and averting an estimated 2 to 3 million deaths per year along with countless episodes of illness and disability.

However, despite significant gains in recent years, some 22.4 million children (almost 20% of children born each year) are not immunized, exposing them to disabilities or premature death. Among immunized children, more than 70% live in the 10 countries with the largest populations and the weakest immunization structures in the world.

Immunization has the potential to boost a country's growth. Immunization makes economic sense. Many analyses weighing the costs versus the benefits of vaccination have shown positive economic impact. What's more, the infrastructure, management and acceptability of immunization programmes offer a platform to deliver other integrated health and nutrition interventions.

Vaccines work by introducing into a person's immune system a harmless form of a bacterium, toxin or virus that a healthy person's body recognizes as unusual and responds by devising a defense (immunity) against it.

The most commonly applied global standard of routine immunization coverage is reflected in an individual's receipt of three doses of DTP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) vaccine, or DTP3. The most recent estimates (2011) show a continuing positive trend in global DTP3 coverage, which was received by 83% of children under one year of age.

Karnataka Government Reaches Out To Millions Of Children With Pentavalent Vaccine

As part of the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP), the vaccine will be administered in government hospitals and clinics across the state.

Bangalore, April 5, 2013: The Pentavalent vaccine, the vaccine which prevents killer diseases in children like diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis-B and Influenza-B has been incorporated into Universal Immunisation Program in Karnataka from March 17, 2013. The vaccine will now be a single injection providing protection against Hib diseases* and will replace earlier used DPT and hepatitis –B injections.

 The vaccine is in use for more than 20 years in nearly 180 countries. More than 160 million doses of Hib-containing pentavalent vaccine were distributed worldwide in 2012, including approximately 90 million doses manufactured in India. The vaccine has an excellent safety record that is well researched and published.
The vaccine was launched as a part of UIP in Kerala and Tamil Nadu in December 2011 and following the recommendations of a post-introduction evaluation led by World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2012, it has also been introduced in Gujarat, Goa, Pondicherry, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka and Delhi. The vaccine is recommended by the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.