NEW DELHI: India needs to broaden the focus from infant and child immunisation to include adolescent, adult, and elderly populations for vaccines such as HPV, Hepatitis B, Influenza, and COVID-19, said a latest government report.
The report by Centre of Excellence in Affordable Healthcare (CoE-AH), IIT Kharagpur and Women’s Collective Forum (WCF), said that with India’s growing adult and elderly population and rising burden of non-communicable diseases, adult immunisation offers a critical preventive strategy.
The report, released by Union Health Minister JP Nadda this week, identified gaps between national-level immunisation policies and ground-level programme implementation, particularly in terms of operational resilience, agility and clarity.
The report said that India’s recent zero-dose trajectory is encouraging but unfinished. There is a decline in children who did not receive any routine vaccination from 2.7 million (2021) to 1.1 million (2022) in India.
“Within India, equity gap persists by wealth, maternal education, urban-rural residence, and social group, with clusters of under-immunisation that require granular micro-planning and convergence with social programs,” the report added.
Pointing out missed opportunities, the report said that antenatal care, adolescent health programs, workplace health checkups were underutilised for administering catch-up or adult vaccines.
Experts called for sustained campaigns targeting parents, teachers, employers, and health workers. They gave clear policy recommendations like developing and rolling out a National Life Course Immunization Strategy, covering vaccines across all age groups. Subsequently, suggested leveraging existing platforms such as Ayushman Bharat-Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs), schools, colleges, and antenatal clinics for vaccine delivery across the life span. The report also suggested mandating health education curricula to include age-specific immunisation awareness.