Mumbai : Over 90,000 children, below the age of five and partially immunised against polio, measles, Hepatitis B and others will receive immunisation from October 9 onwards. Mission Indradhanush, a scheme by the central government, will be implemented in the city to identify and attend to children absent from the immunisation circle.
The main aim of the central government for starting this scheme is to identify children at construction sites, slums, isolated areas, and those who migrate to the city every year and are deprived of vaccines.
According to the national and international guidelines, a toddler is supposed to follow the cycle of vaccination for Polio, measles, Hepatitis B, Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG), diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, mumps, and rubella.
Officials from Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said that they have located 1,75,877 toddlers (below the age of five) from which 90,550 are partially immunised and 964 are not put on any immunisation cycle.
However, many children, who are migrated, have families with little health awareness or are born in areas with restricted resources are not covered under the scheme as of now. “We have conducted home to home survey and traced the expecting mothers for routine immunisation, there would be four rounds in the phases and the first one will start from October 9th,” said Dr. Chandrashekhar Chiplunkar, deputy health officer.
Dr. Paresh Kantharia, World Health Organisation (WHO) the in-charge of immunisation program said that the details about missing children from the vaccination program was revealed by the polio survey.
“Polio eradication program revealed that children from slum pockets or with no permanent residential structure were identified as the missing link,” said Dr. Kantharia. BMC officials have located 564 vaccinates with the necessity of immunisation program. “While 65 per cent of children are covered under the immunisation program, the rest are missing from the benefits,” added Dr. Kantharia
