The Haryana Government on Friday claimed that as many as four districts in the State have registered child immunisation rate of above 90 per cent.
The State mission director, National Health Mission, Amneet P Kumar, on the concluding day of the three-day State-level capacity-building workshop for medical officers in Panchkula, said that concerted efforts are being made by the Health Department to fully immunise children in other districts too.
Amneet said that Ambala has recorded 97 per cent full child immunisation rate, Panchkula 96.9 per cent, Karnal 91 percent and Kaithal 90.5 per cent. As many as six districts fall below the State average of 62.2 per cent, with Nuh performing the worst at 13 per cent, said she.
In view of this, the State Government is organising State-level training of trainers on the updated Routine Immunisation Handbook in April and May this year. Under this, district immunisation officers, urban child health and immunisation nodal officers and two district trainers from each district would be imparted training by trainers from World Health Organisation at State Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Sector 6, Panchkula, she said.
Amneet said that as many as three batches of seven districts each have been created for this purpose. Training of the first batch has been held from April 26 to 28.
She said that in the training programme, medical officers would be informed about scientifically-based principles and standards, technical specifications for vaccines and equipment, and operational considerations that they must weigh to devise the best solutions for their circumstances, drawn from real-life experiences to illustrate how technical and operational issues can be addressed in the field, in order to protect every child.
Highlighting the need for building up the sustainable capacity of the immunisation system, Kumar said that routine immunisation is one of the most cost-effective public health interventions.
While immunisation gives each child a minimum of four contacts with the health system before the age of one year, it is a tremendous opportunity that is often underutilised, due to the lack of awareness and poor health-seeking behaviour. While routine immunisation has played a significant role in preventing childhood deaths and disability, many children die from vaccine- preventable diseases each year, she said.
Amneet said the programme had undergone changes with new procedures, including Open Vial Policy, Injection Safety and Bio Medical Waste Management. “The Government of India had chosen Haryana as one of the first states for introduction of new vaccines such as Measles second dose, Pentavalent, Rotavirus and Fractional IPV, based on recognition of the efforts of the State towards strengthening systems with capacity building of personnel and improvement in service delivery. There is now a plan to introduce the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine,” she added.