Scare of vaccines leads to low immunisation rates: Study
In Maharashtra, which closely follows at the heels of the other high-burden states, up to 4,35,600 children have been missed by the state health department for immunisation.
Every year up to 90 lakh newborn children in India were missing their dose of vaccines against life-threatening illnesses until last year, when India took baby steps to improve the condition by launching Mission Indradhanush to vaccinate more children. Between April and August this year, 20 lakh additional children between ages 0-5 were vaccinated. India still misses out on vaccinating 70 lakh children every year. While up to 2.6 crore children are born annually in the country, only up to 1.6 to 1.7 crore (up to 60% - 65%) children have been getting vaccinated against seven diseases – diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, childhood TB, polio, hepatitis B and measles. These are caused due to either air or waterborne infections.Up to 3,10,777 children monitored in 2014, to understand the reasons for the huge missing population, it was realised that up to 30% were not vaccinated as parents had apprehensions about adverse events following immunisation (AEFI). In an additional 33% cases, parents were unaware about existence of vaccines. The children were monitored by World Health Organization (WHO) in India. "Many parents fear that their children may get side effects (at times debilating or life threatening) after vaccinations. Such instances are rare though. Also awareness in a large chunk of population was missing," said Joint Secretary (Health) Dr Rakesh Kumar.201 districts in 28 states with over 50% drop out population of children were identified for intervention, said Kumar. Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh (UP) are amongst the worse-off states amongst these. "44 districts with poor immunisation rates were in UP alone," he said.
In Maharashtra, which closely follows at the heels of the other high-burden states, up to 4,35,600 children have been missed by the state health department for immunisation. Population of Maharashtra is eleven crores of which 12% population belongs to 0-5 years age category. Nearly 13, 20,000 children in Maharashtra belong to 0-5 years age category.The immunisation rates in India have been extremely poor. From 2011 uptil 2014, there was barely a growth of one per cent in the amount of children being added to the vaccinated lot, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday. Modi was speaking at the Call to Action 2015 international summit for ending preventable maternal and child deaths. "With the launch of Mission Indradhanush, India has vaccinated an additional 20 lakh children between April to August this year. An accelerated growth rate of vaccinating five percent additional children has been set this year. If we continue at this rate by 2020, we can achieve an ambitious target of covering up to 90% of children," said Modi. However, he warned that if on the hindsight, India continues to immunise at a slow growth rate of one per cent per year, over 90% immunisation will not be achieved until another twenty five years.India is still dragging its feet at reducing maternal and child deaths due to preventable illnesses which can curbed through vaccination. Up to 167 pregnant mothers in every one lakh die in India due to complications. 49 children of every 1,000 live births die before their fifth birthday. "The burden of child deaths in India is five times higher than Sri Lanka, under-five mortality rate is barely 9 children per 1,000 live births," said Dr Chithramalee de Silva, deputy secretary, Ministry of Health of Sri Lanka.India officially eliminates tetanus, says ModiIn a heartening development, PM Narendra Modi announced that India had officially eliminated maternal and child deaths related to tetanus infection. In 1989, up to two lakh children died every year due to tetanus in India. The country has been able to bring this number down to less than one death per one lakh population of children in 2015. Tetanus is an infection caused by bacteria clostridium tetani. Practices like rubbing of cow dung manure onto child and mother after severing the umbilical cord in rural parts of India lead to tetanus related infections. India has systematically reduced these practices leading to elimination, said Ministry of Health and Family Welfare officials.