India’s Universal Immunization Program is amongst the world’s largest public health programmes

According to the World Health Organization, immunization prevents about 2 to 3 million deaths a year and has helped to control several life-threatening diseases and saved millions of lives.

Editorial Team | Updated: May 3, 2018 1:39 pm

This year for World Immunization Week (April 24-30) experts from the Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) – Mumbai came in with full support for national immunization efforts to save the lives of India’s children under five. 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).

Pneumonia and diarrhea are the country’s leading killer infectious diseases that claim the most number of lives of children under the age of five. 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.

Read: Why is immunization important?

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. It includes vaccines against leading preventable childhood diseases such as polio, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, tuberculosis, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, rotavirus diarrhea and pneumonia. According to evaluated data from the National Family Health Survey 4 (NFHS-4) in 2014-2015, full immunization coverage was 62% in India and 56.3% in Maharashtra. Nonetheless, the current figures are likely higher as a result of the ongoing vaccination programmes.

Read: 9 reasons why even adults need vaccination?

Now the objective is to rapidly build immunization coverage beyond 90% by December 2018. Commenting on the increased focus on immunization, 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.”

Source: Press release

Image Source: Shutterstock

Published: May 3, 2018 12:50 pm | Updated:May 3, 2018 1:39 pm

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