Surveillance mechanism to monitor vaccine deaths

According to the new vaccine policy, all states and districts are required to constitute expert panels to monitor these deaths, known as adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) in technical parlance. The operational guidelines on AEFI has also been updated and published.

“Steps have been taken to improve AEFI surveillance and case management. We are now closely monitoring AEFI cases to enhance public confidence in our immunisation programme,” union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said at a WHO ministerial meeting on routine immunisation here.

Low immunisation

Lack of immunisation coverage is one of India’s major public health challenges. Infant mortality rate stands at 50 – nowhere close to the UN Millennium Development Goal target of 28. Kerala and Tamil Nadu are the only states with an IMR of 28.

Currently only 11 states have more than 70 per cent coverage in the universal immunisation programme. The coverage varies between 50 and 70 per cent in 13 states and less than 50 per cent in eight states, including the populous ones like Uttar Pradesh.
Every year as many as 18.3 lakh children under five are killed by diseases, including 13.2 lakh children who die before reaching their first birthday.

As many as 9.4 lakh children die within the first month after birth, though timely vaccination could have saved many. But in many states people's confidence in immunisation programme is low, which is further affected adversely in case of vaccine deaths.

 Analysis of the reported AEFI cases showed that in 2010, out of 128 reported cases of vaccine deaths, 48 deaths were co-incidental.