NEW DELHI: The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Saturday called for more significant steps in the South-East Asia Region to revive regular immunisation rates to pre-Covid times, stressing that despite concerted efforts by countries, challenges and gaps persist.
Highlighting India’s routine immunisation coverage, the world health body said that decline was witnessed in 2020. However, it added that in 2021, India provided close to 2 billion doses of Covid-19 and other childhood vaccines taken together, over five times more vaccines administered in the country during the year than in 2020.
Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director WHO South-East Asia, commended the region for administering a billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines to date since January 2021, when the first dose of vaccine was issued in the region.
"As we focus on further scaling up Covid-19 vaccination coverage, we must also do all we can to ensure no child is deprived of life-saving vaccines offered under routine immunisation services," she added.
Many counties have demonstrated that routine immunisation can be maintained or scaled up along with Covid-19 vaccination, she said.
"This speaks for a very committed health workforce which has to manage considerable challenges."
Though India saw a decline in routine immunisation in 2020, it picked up subsequently.
In India, periodic intensification of routine immunisation is carried out through ‘Mission Indradhanush’. WHO has supported detailed mapping and categorisation of low coverage areas in states, guiding short and medium-term plans to improve coverage in all such places, the statement added. Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand maintained high vaccination rates of over 95 per cent DTP3 coverage throughout the Covid -19 pandemic.
Bhutan witnessed a slight decline in 2020 but surpassed its pre-pandemic coverage of 97 per cent to 98 per cent DTP3 in 2021, a statement said.
Globally, DTP3 (third dose of vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) in one-year-old children is a proxy indicator for immunisation coverage, it said.
Nepal substantially revived routine immunisation coverage for DTP3 from 84 per cent in 2020 to 91 per cent in 2021. These six countries have also achieved high COVID-19 vaccination coverage, it said.
All countries in the South-East Asia Region focused on routine immunisation while prioritising essential services during the pandemic and concerted efforts continue to be made to scale-up vaccination coverage, focusing on identifying and vaccinating 'missed children', the world health body said.
Efforts for measles and rubella elimination, a flagship priority in the Region, continued during the pandemic. Nepal substantially increased the coverage for the second dose of measles and rubella vaccine from 76 per cent in 2019 to 87 per cent in 2021. Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, and Sri Lanka maintained their respective coverage rates throughout the pandemic, the statement said.
To revitalise routine immunisation coverage following the Covid-19 pandemic, WHO convened a South-East Asia Regional Working Group on Immunization in March this year, focusing on programme intensification, it said.
Strengthening catch-up campaigns, tracking unvaccinated and under-vaccinated children, combining COVID-19 vaccination with routine immunisation, training health workers and addressing concerns of communities were stressed, the statement said.
"WHO is aware of the efforts and supports the Member States to improve routine immunisation coverage. With stepped-up efforts in recent months, we hoped to see a quick scale-up of DTP3 coverage to the pre-pandemic level of 91 per cent in 2019 from 82 per cent in 2021 and second dose measles and rubella vaccine coverage to beyond 83 per cent in 2019 from 78 per cent in 2021," Dr Khetrapal said.