'Newer vaccines reflect India’s commitment to save every child'

Vaccination remains one of the most powerful yet cost-effective health interventions ever introduced. If you count the number of children whose lives could be saved just from malaria, encephalitis, and rotavirus vaccines—the figure would be more than two million children a year. As India remains polio- free for the fourth year now, mainly due to vaccines, we can build upon this legacy by reaching all children with the rest of the lifesaving vaccines they need.

On March 26, 2016, India joined the growing number of countries that have introduced rotavirus vaccine into their national immunization programs. Later this year, the Government of India proposes to introduce the pneumococcal vaccine in its Universal Immunization Programme (UIP). For India, these are logical and most welcome decisions. India continues to be among the top ten countries with the highest number of deaths due to pneumonia (388,000) and diarrhea (206,000). While under-five deaths in India are still high, the tragic reality is that a majority of them are vaccine preventable. The power of vaccines is particularly potent in situations where medical care is either not available or is physically beyond the reach of communities and families.

For example, India continues to have one of the highest rates of diarrhea in the world. Along with pneumonia, it is one of the leading causes of child illness and death, and rotavirus is the most common cause of severe diarrhea. Rotavirus is responsible for almost 40 percent of diarrhea-related hospitalizations in India—almost 300,000 hospitalizations each year. While rotavirus diarrhea can be treated, the urgent medical care needed is not always accessible to many children, especially among poor populations in India, making vaccination the best way to prevent death of infants from severe diarrhea caused by rotavirus. Another reason why vaccination is so critical is that improvements in water, sanitation, and hygiene alone do not adequately prevent the spread of rotavirus, although they play an essential role in reducing illness from other causes of diarrhea. India is right to pursue the combined effort of rotavirus vaccination alongside the push to create a healthier environment for children through its ambitious Clean India Mission. With India joining the ranks of 80 other countries around the globe who are saving the lives of children from this terrible disease with the introduction of rotavirus vaccine, this cost-effective intervention will not only reduce under-five mortality but pave the way for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

With this new vaccine introduction, the Government of India also strengthened health systems, facilitating the faster introduction of other new vaccines like the pneumococcal vaccine. Interestingly, states are already moving ahead. Recently, Haryana not only launched the rotavirus vaccine in its routine immunization schedule, but it also conveyed to the Government of India its keenness to introduce the pneumococcal vaccine too in the state as well. When the Indian Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Mr. JP Nadda, called the launch of the rotavirus vaccine through the UIP in Bhubaneswar, Odisha a ‘historic’ moment and an ‘exemplary’ step in India’s immunization programme, he emphasized the Government’s commitment—an essential investment in children—the future of the country.

After all, when something that is common, yet severe and devastating, can be preventable, it makes perfect sense to opt for it. In a conducive environment where an indigenously manufactured vaccine has given new meaning to the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ initiative—there is indeed hope for India’s children!

By: Dr. Rajiv Tandon
The author is the technical director for Maternal, Newborn, Child Health, Nutrition and Adolescent Health, PATH, New Delhi