By Raju Kumar
Madhya Pradesh is one of the states in the country where infant mortality, child mortality and malnutrition are very high. Reducing infant mortality and child mortality has been a challenge for the government. Still expected success has not been achieved, although IMR (Infant Mortality Rate) and CMR (Child Mortality Rate) have come down in the last few years. For this, the role of immunization is important in preventing disease-related illnesses. Regular vaccination program at the government level is constantly adding new vaccines, so that children can be saved from various diseases. In the last few years, pentavalent, IPV and rota virus were added to the public immunization program. Now in this series PCV vaccine at national level is being added to the regular vaccination program. PCV i.e. (pneumococcal conjugate vaccine) can be prevented from pneumonia and brain fever.
PCV vaccination is being launched simultaneously in the entire state of Madhya Pradesh. Nationally, some districts in different states of the country and all districts of Bihar and Himachal Pradesh have been selected for this. In view of the history of successful vaccination campaign earlier, all the 51 districts of Madhya Pradesh have been selected for this. PCV was available in the private sector for the past 10 years, due to the cost of the poor, poor people could not afford it. Now it will be available free of cost to all children in the government’s regular vaccination program.
In Madhya Pradesh, training and workshops have been organized at different levels for its preparation. The UNICEF, UNDP, WHO and the Health Department of Madhya Pradesh has made many preparations in this regard. Through their expertise, these agencies are collaborating in regular vaccination programs. Awareness initiative is being undertaken by UNICEF through communication workshops. According to UNICEF’s communications expert Anil Gulati, various methods of communication are being adopted to increase coverage of the entire vaccination in the state, including social media. Monitoring of the immunization process is being done in collaboration with UNDP. Various levels of technical aspects related to PCV vaccine and state vaccination status are being given at various levels.
National Health Mission’s Madhya Pradesh Director S. Viswanathan says that in the state of the child mortality rate of and infant mortality rates have come down 5 points and 3 points respectively last year. Better implementation of vaccination program is also an important factor. State Vaccination Officer Dr. Santosh Shukla says that now a vaccination calendar is being given to beneficiaries for free, which gives them information about immunization. There is also work on a reminder app in the state, which will work to make a reminder to the beneficiary for immunization. UNICEF, Madhya Pradesh Health Specialist Dr. Vandana Bhatia says that now 10 vaccines have joined the regular vaccination program. New PCV vaccine will be applied to children for one and a half months, three-and-a-half months and nine months. This will save the children from pneumonia and brain fever, which will reduce their mortality rate.
It is notable that according to the SRS report in the state, the infant mortality rate in the state in the year 2016 is 47 per thousand children and the child mortality rate is 55 per thousand children. According to a report, 13400 children below 5 years of age die due to pneumonia every year in the state. Pneumonia is an infectious disease, which is the biggest cause of death from infectious diseases in children under the age of 5 years of the world. The risk of pneumonia in children increases due to several reasons, such as decreasing their immune system due to malnutrition or any other diseases. Due to non-availability of poverty and treatment, the risk of death of children increases. It is expected that after joining the CPV in regular vaccination program, children will not die of pneumonia and menstrual fever. (IPA Service)
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