BHUBANESWAR : Immunisation N is the most powerful tool at disposal to prevent childhood mortality. Many deadly diseases can be prevented through sustained and intensified vaccination programmes, said State president of Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) Dr Chintamani Panda. Talking to medaipersons on the occasion of World Immunisation Week here on Sunday, Dr Panda said the focus is now to push for rapid scaling up of efforts to achieve full immunisation coverage to reduce the number of young lives lost to vaccine-preventable diseases.
India’s Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) is amongst the world’s largest public health programmes that targets 2.7 crore newborns every year with vaccines that are free of cost. Vaccines against leading preventable childhood diseases including polio, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, tuberculosis, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, rotavirus diarrhea and pneumonia have been successfully administered.
The International Vaccine Access Center’s Pneumonia and Diarrhoea Progress Report 2017 states that India could prevent over 90,000 child deaths by scaling up coverage of immunisation programme against pneumonia and diarrhoea. Since the goal is to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1000 live births and under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1000 live births by 2030, Dr Panda said, immunization coverage has to go beyond 90 per cent by December 2020 from around 80 per cent now.
Vice-president of IAP (Bhubaneshwar) Dr Susrut Das said the Government’s ongoing efforts to introduce newer vaccines in the UIP will help prevent leading infections contributing to childhood mortality. “The availability and inclusion of new vaccines will help meet the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals to reduce under- 5 mortality by 2030,” he added.