The Jharkhand Chapter of Alliance for Immunisation in India (AII), a network for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) which aims to improve immunisation coverage in the country with quality, was launched at ceremony organised here on Thursday. The launch will be followed by a training session for CSO partners on immunisation and discussion on future course of action.
Speaking on the occasion Dr. Ajeet Prasad, Deputy Director, Health informed that Jharkhand has made considerable progress as full immunisation of children has increased from 8 per cent in 2000 to 69.9 per cent in (AHS 2012-13) due to which our Infant Mortality Rate stands at an impressive 36 per 1000 live births.
“Still 2.3 lakh children fail to get full immunisation in the State. Our BCG coverage stands at 94.4 per cent while measles coverage is only 82 per cent. It means children are dropping out of our immunisation net. This challenge is going to increase as we will be introducing three new vaccines (rotavirus, Japanese encephalitic and pentavalent) in state and we aim to achieve more than 90 per cent coverage,” informed Prasad.