KOLKATA: Mass
vaccination programmes have reached more than 90% households in
Bengal, says the National Family Health Survey 2019-20, holding out hope for planners and the public as the state queues up for vaccination against Covid-19.
The survey was conducted in 18,187 Bengal homes from June to November 2019 by the Indian Institute of Health Management Research. It reveals that during mass vaccination drives for children aged 12-23 months, 98.6% received the BCG vaccine, 95% got three doses of Pentavalent or DPT vaccine and 94.4% had their first dose of measles-containing vaccine.
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Two factors make the Covid vaccination programme much more complicated: one, we are still in the middle of the pandemic and homes continue to be affected and bereaved; two, the programme will have to bear the weight of public expectations. But having an efficient mass immunisation programme makes this tough job a lot easier.
While all these three are injectable, it assumes significance since Covishield and Covaxin — the two vaccines authorised by the Indian drug regulator for use against Covid-19 — are also injectable. Experts feel Bengal’s track record, with noticeable improvements in its BCG, DPT and MCV programmes, will put it in good stead when the country launches its nCov vaccination drive on January 16.
Interestingly, the NFHS survey also showed that 96.3% children received most of their vaccinations in state public health facilities. In rural Bengal, 98.5% children got their shots in public health facilities, which, experts said, indicates the accessibility of such centres. In urban Bengal, this figure stood at 90.2%.
On the worrying side, vaccination in private health facilities in Bengal was significantly low. Only 2.5% children were vaccinated in private healthcare facilities. Health facilities, both public and private, will be vaccination points for Covid-19 in Bengal.
IPGMER professor Diptendra Sarkar said: “Private health facilities will have less vaccination numbers due to multiple factors. But most importantly, in the government sector we have a robust mass vaccination infrastructure. This has penetrated well into rural Bengal. The cold-chain network, which was first introduced during the polio vaccination drive, is there. This will help us.”
All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health’s maternity and child health department head, AK Mallick, said: “This is definitely a plus. In Bengal and across India, we do have a robust system in which, in addition to physical infrastructure, we have trained manpower across multiple levels. This will be critical.” He added: “Many of these vaccines require cold chain points. These can be used for some
Covid vaccines, if needed.”
The survey also showed that 92% of children aged 12-23 months in Bengal received three doses of Penta or Hepatitis B vaccine. The worrying factor is there has been a drop in children aged 9-35 months who received a Vitamin A dose. It was 75% in 2015-16; in 2019-20 it dropped to 68.4%.