Plan to introduce four new vaccines nationwide

Chennai: The Centre’s new initiative to reduce child and infant mortality and morbidity in the country by soon introducing four new vaccines rotavirus, rubella, polio (injectable) and Japanese encephalitis in the national immunisation programme will help to improve the health of children, say city doctors.

These vaccines have hitherto not been administered through the nationwide immunisation programme of providing free vaccines. “Rotavirus causes fatal diarrhoea in children while the Rubella virus causes measles in children. The move to vaccinate children will not only improve the health of children but also ensure a healthy generation,” says deputy director of health services, Dr Madhusudhanan.

Diarrhoea kills 80,000 children every year, especially those under the age of five, and 10 lakh children get hospitalised while 2 lakh babies are born with birth defects in India every year.

With the introduction of the new vaccines, India will now provide free vaccines against 13 life-threatening diseases to 2.7 crore children born every year.

India’s child mortality rate (CMR) stands at 57, that is for every 1,000 live births, 57 children under the age of five, die.

By 2015, India has set the ambitious target of reducing the CMR to 38 to meet the Millennium Development Goal 4 targets. Mumbai’s CMR is 32, while Chennai has 15 deaths per 1,000 live births, and it is 9 in Kerala.

According to city surgeon, Dr Mohan Rajan, viral diseases have been taking a toll on human lives. “The recent new move of government to introduce four new vaccines will surely help to bring down morbidity,” he said.

According to sources in the non-communicable disease control, the JE vaccine will be available for adults in 179 districts in nine states where the disease is highly prevalent.

Along with the recent introduction of the pentavalent vaccine, this decision represents one of the most significant policy leaps in 30 years in public health, preventing at least 1 lakh infant deaths, deaths of adults in the working age group and up to 10 lakh hospitalisations each year.