Give pneumonia a jab

Health department, with an intention to curb infant deaths due to pneumonia in Rajasthan, is going to include a vaccine that prevents pneumonia in immunisation programme. The vaccine, termed as Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV), will be administered to children under a Government of India’s pilot project which will start from this April in nine districts of the state.

“Two primary doses of PCV will be administered to newborns at 1.5 month (6th week) and 3.5 month (14th week) while the third, a booster dose at the 9th month,” Dr SM Mittal, Director, Reproductive and Child Health told DNA.

“PCV will reduce incidence of pneumonia, meningitis and other serious bacterial infections caused by pneumococcal bacteria that result into death mostly,” he added. The project will be rolled out in nine districts including Banswara, Barmer, Dungarpur, Jalore, Pali, Pratapgarh, Rajsamand, Sirohi and Udaipur. All health Reproductive and Child Health Officers, and selected medical officers of these districts have been provided training about the new vaccine in a two-day workshop this week. The trained officials will further train all the health workers and medical officers of their respective districts.

“These nine districts of the state have high under-5 mortality and most number of the children in the state die of pneumonia. With the introduction of the PCV, approximately 4.6 lakh children will be benefited,” Secretary, health department and mission director of the National Health Mission Naveen Jain said.

“As pneumonia is number one killer among leading infectious diseases in the under-5 age group in India. The introduction of PCV will help in curbing pneumonia and other illness caused by pneumococcal bacteria. On success of the pilot project in nine districts, it will be extended to other districts of the state,” Jain added.