India's immunisation program amongst world's largest health initiatives
New Delhi : With a goal to save more children, India's immunisation program has find a place in world's largest health initiatives. During World Immunization Week (April 24-30), doctors came in full support to give vaccine to children below the age of 5.
The country’s 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, so that India can meet its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Most children in India lose life due to pneumonia and diarrhea. The IAP experts cited data from the International Vaccine Access Center’s (IVAC’s) 2017 Pneumonia and Diarrhea Progress Report, which states that India could prevent over 90,000 child deaths and save over 1 billion USD each year in economic benefits, by scaling up coverage of immunization programs against pneumonia and diarrhea.
According to a press release posted on the health site, Dr. Nitin Shah, Consultant Pediatrician and Section Head Pediatrics at PD Hinduja National Hospital and leading immunization expert said, “Immunization is the most powerful tool at our disposal to prevent childhood mortality and morbidity or suffering. Through sustained and intensified vaccination programs, we have successfully rid the world of deadly disease like small pox and most part of world is now polio free. We must now push for rapid scaling up of our efforts to achieve full immunization coverage to reduce the number of young lives lost to vaccine-preventable diseases.”
India’s Universal Immunization Program (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.
Now, Indian government aims to rapidly build immunization coverage beyond 90% by December 2018. Making a comment on it, Dr Shah, said, “The government’s ongoing efforts to introduce newer vaccines in the UIP will help to prevent leading infections contributing to childhood mortality and morbidity. I strongly believe that the availability and inclusion of newer vaccines such as the broad coverage pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and Rotavirus values vaccine will help India meet the United Nation’s sustainable development goals to reduce under-5 mortality by 2030.”
