THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The health department has launched a vaccine that protects children against a type of pneumonia, which is a major cause of deaths among children below the age of five, under the universal immunisation programme (UIP).
The Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) will be available free of cost at the government vaccination centres from the next vaccination day. With the inclusion in UIP, the health department aims to give the vaccine to 40,000 children in the first month and 4.8 lakh children in a year.
PCV is given in one-and-a-half-month-old children along with other vaccines. The second and third doses are given when the child becomes three months and nine months old. The maximum age to receive the first dose of vaccine is one year.
“We have received 55,000 doses of vaccine so far, and it has been distributed among districts,” said Health Minister Veena George at the state-level launch of the new vaccine at the Women and Children’s Hospital at Thycaud in Thiruvananthapuram, on Friday.