Bengaluru: 90 per cent of children in city get doses of good health – Vaccination
BENGALURU: More than 90% of kids aged between 12 months to 23 months have got all basic vaccinations administered at various government healthcare centres in Bengaluru. Only about 7% of the kids living in different parts of the city have not got vaccinated against six major childhood diseases such as tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, and measles.
According to the latest Health Management Information System (HMIS) report put out by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), up to 93% of children have been receiving proper and regular child vaccinations in the city limits, whereas in Karnataka 97% of the families have administered vaccinations for their children. Recently, the Centre has awarded five districts of Karnataka for vaccinating more than 90% of the kids as per its Coverage Evaluation Survey (CES).
However, the gap in other districts could be attributed to the lack of awareness and information on vaccination. Parents are also apprehensive that vaccination may cause physical harm to a kid’s body which could be seen more in the cities where the population of the migrants and nomads are higher.
Dr. B N Rajini, Deputy director, Immunization, Health department, Government of Karnataka said, "We try to reach both the rural masses, urban elite and other urbanites by creating awareness through various social media, mass media such as radio jingles, video spots, newspaper ads, theatres, hoardings and posters spread across the state. As per the instructions of Government of India Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) starting December 2019 till March 2020 we are trying to cover those who have been left out for administering the regular and safe vaccination".
The immune system of a child will not be fully developed due to which, they are more prone to serious and life-threatening diseases such as measles, chicken pox, polio, rotavirus, hepatitis, etc. The immunity of the child increases when they are vaccinated regularly, whereas the baby without the vaccination is at a higher chance of getting infected. Vaccinations are recommended up to 10 years. For the girls, there is an extra vaccination called Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine which is recommended after 10 years to prevent vaginal and vulvar cancer.
Dr. Sai Shankar, Consultant Pediatric Intensivist and Neonatologist, Sakra World Hospital says "One of the biggest revolutions in medicine are the vaccines which have for the last many years reduced the number of deaths of the children. Ever since vaccines were introduced, there’s nothing more that has helped the doctor in increasing the baby's immunity as much as a vaccine."
