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Universal Immunisation Programme
Saturday’s launch of Rotavirus vaccine marked a new milestone in India’s universal immunisation programme, aimed at reducing child mortality. It is seen as an exemplary step in India’s immunisation programme aimed at reducing morbidity and mortality in children.
Saturday’s launch of Rotavirus vaccine marked a new milestone in India’s universal immunisation programme, aimed at reducing child mortality. It is seen as an exemplary step in India’s immunisation programme aimed at reducing morbidity and mortality in children.
Rotavirus is one of the leading causes of severe diarrhea and death among children less than five years of age, and that every year nearly 80,000 to one lakh children die in the country due to Rotavirus diarrhea, and about 9 lakh children are admitted to hospital due to episodes of severe diarrhea with 32.7 lakh cases of OPD.
The vaccine seeks to address problem of diarrheal deaths. India's Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) launched in 1985 is one of the largest immunization programmes in the world and a major public health intervention in the country. It aims to give maximum protection to the children against Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPDs).
The measles vaccine was added in 1985 and in 1990 Vit A supplementation was added to the programme. UIP became a part of Child Survival and Safe Motherhood Programme in 1992 and is currently one of the key areas under National Rural Health Mission(NRHM) since 2005. It consists of vaccination for seven diseases- tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, poliomyelitis, measles and Hepatitis B.
In 2014 it was announced that four vaccines will be added to the program, namely rotavirus, rubella and Japanese encephalitis, as well as the injectable polio vaccine. With these new vaccines, India’s UIP will provide free vaccines against 11 life threatening diseases, to 27 million children annually, the largest birth cohort in the world.
The NDA government launched ‘Mission Indradhanush’ in December 2014 to fully immunise more than 89 lakh children who are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. In two phases of ‘Mission Indradhanush’ spread over April 2015 to July 2015 and October 2015 to January 2016 a total of 1.42 crore children and 36.7 lakh women were immunized in 20 lakh immunization sessions.
