Health Ministry admits gaps in routine immunisation

Months after being alerted by the WHO and UNICEF on a dip in routine immunisation, the Union Health Ministry has planned a special drive to “catch up on the gaps that might have emerged due to the Covid-19 pandemic”.

“Three rounds of Intensified Mission Indradhanush 4.0 have been planned to catch up on the gaps that might have emerged due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The activity will be conducted in 416 districts across 33 states and UTs,” the ministry said on Monday.

In the first phase, 11 of the 33 states would undertake the exercise as per the February – April 2022 schedule under which the first round will start from February 7, the second round from March 7 and the third round from April 4. Unlike the past, each round will be conducted for seven days including Sundays, and public holidays.

While the full vaccination coverage among kids aged 12-23 months has increased from 62% (as per the National Family Health Survey-4 carried out in 2015-16) to 76.4% (NFHS-5 in 2019-21), there has been a major drop in the immunisation services in the last two years due to the pandemic.

India’s DTP coverage that rose steadily to reach 91% in 2019 dipped to 85% a year later.

Last July, a WHO-UNICEF study showed nearly 3.5 million Indian children missed their vaccination in 2020 -- the highest in the world. The number of such missing children was 1.4 million in 2019.

For the WHO southeast Asia region that includes India, the number of unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children increased to 4.9 million as against 3 million in 2019.

“At nearly 4.4 million, in 2020 South Asia recorded the highest number of children having failed to receive any routine vaccination in the past ten years. More than 3 million of these “zero-dose children” in 2020 lived in India,” the UNICEF had stated last year. For comparison, every year nearly 26 million babies are born in India.

The estimated coverage with the first dose of measles vaccine in the region fell to 88% in 2020 compared with 92% in 2019. Similarly, coverage with the second dose of measles-containing vaccine declined to 78% in 2020 compared with 83% in 2019.

Launching the special drive, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya noted that while pace of routine immunization slowed down due to the pandemic, the Intensified Mission Indradhanush 4.0 would immensely contribute in filling the gaps and make lasting gains towards Universal Immunisation.

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