<p> <br />“The second dose of measles vaccination will start from November in 17 states. We have issued the tender for vaccine procurement,” Union Health Secretary K Sujatha Rao told Deccan Herald here. <br /><br />It will be administered in states where 80 per cent children are covered by the first dose. Karnataka will be one among them.<br /><br />Measles is one of the biggest child killers in India. Every year one lakh to 1.6 lakh children die from the viral disease. Nearly 90 per cent of the deaths occur in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Assam, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Gujarat. <br /><br />Under the routine immunisation programme, children between 9 and 12 months are given one shot of measles vaccine. Though there are a few better performing states, the national coverage is on the lower side of 56 per cent. This contributes to adding of 11 million unprotected children every year. <br /><br />For long, the World Health Organisation and the Unicef suggested introducing a second dose of measles vaccine in the immunisation programme. The same advice came repeatedly from the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation—the apex advisory body on immunisation. But the Health Ministry did not act. <br /><br />In 2005, the government readied an action plan, which set out a target of reducing the measles mortality rate by two-third by 2010, compared to the year 2000 estimate. The target was to have a national coverage of 90 per cent. However, little was done to realise the goal. <br /><br />After sitting on the June 2008 NTAGI recommendation reaffirming the second dose for two years, the ministry finally approved it recently. <br /><br />“The second dose will save thousands of children by catering to those 20 per cent which were not covered in the first and those who have missed the entire immunisation programme,” said Panna Choudhury, former president of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics.<br /><br />For northern districts with poor immunisation compliance, there is a special scheme. “In 40 districts, children will be inoculated with measles vaccine up to 10 years of age,” Rao said. <br /><br />“This will possibly be conducted in a campaign mode (like the polio programme) bringing more children under the vaccine net,” Choudhury said. But a problem area could be reaching out to children who do not go to school because schoolchildren provide a captive base for vaccination.</p>
<p> <br />“The second dose of measles vaccination will start from November in 17 states. We have issued the tender for vaccine procurement,” Union Health Secretary K Sujatha Rao told Deccan Herald here. <br /><br />It will be administered in states where 80 per cent children are covered by the first dose. Karnataka will be one among them.<br /><br />Measles is one of the biggest child killers in India. Every year one lakh to 1.6 lakh children die from the viral disease. Nearly 90 per cent of the deaths occur in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Assam, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Gujarat. <br /><br />Under the routine immunisation programme, children between 9 and 12 months are given one shot of measles vaccine. Though there are a few better performing states, the national coverage is on the lower side of 56 per cent. This contributes to adding of 11 million unprotected children every year. <br /><br />For long, the World Health Organisation and the Unicef suggested introducing a second dose of measles vaccine in the immunisation programme. The same advice came repeatedly from the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation—the apex advisory body on immunisation. But the Health Ministry did not act. <br /><br />In 2005, the government readied an action plan, which set out a target of reducing the measles mortality rate by two-third by 2010, compared to the year 2000 estimate. The target was to have a national coverage of 90 per cent. However, little was done to realise the goal. <br /><br />After sitting on the June 2008 NTAGI recommendation reaffirming the second dose for two years, the ministry finally approved it recently. <br /><br />“The second dose will save thousands of children by catering to those 20 per cent which were not covered in the first and those who have missed the entire immunisation programme,” said Panna Choudhury, former president of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics.<br /><br />For northern districts with poor immunisation compliance, there is a special scheme. “In 40 districts, children will be inoculated with measles vaccine up to 10 years of age,” Rao said. <br /><br />“This will possibly be conducted in a campaign mode (like the polio programme) bringing more children under the vaccine net,” Choudhury said. But a problem area could be reaching out to children who do not go to school because schoolchildren provide a captive base for vaccination.</p>
