Govt asks states to refocus on universal immunization as COVID cases fall

The Universal Immunization Program is one of the largest public health programs, targeting approximately 26 million newborns and 29 million pregnant women annually. A child is said to be fully immunized if he has received all due vaccines according to the National Immunization Program within the first year of life.

“During the pandemic, the immunization department of the Health Ministry was occupied with the Covid-19 vaccination programme. As a result, the routine vaccination schedule went into the backlog. A senior government official said, with more than 2 billion COVID vaccine doses given so far and COVID cases declining, the universal immunization program needs to be revived.

The program includes vaccination against 12 preventable diseases such as diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, rubella, hepatitis B and meningitis. “Every component of the Universal Immunization Program has been strengthened and accelerated. For example, pulse polio vaccination has been devised. All activities related to routine immunization under Mission Indradhanush are being focused and continued,” the official said, adding that some new vaccines are being added to the programme, however, it may take some time. Mission Indradhanush The focus is on areas with low immunization coverage and difficult areas with a high proportion of unvaccinated and partially vaccinated children.

“In the last two years, there has been a decline of approx. 20% in the routine immunization schedule. Pre-Covid, vaccination coverage was around 90%. A major drop was witnessed during the second wave in the month of March to June last year and during March-June this year. We have now completed two rounds of Mission Indradhanush to identify beneficiaries who were left out due to Covid,” said another official who could not be quoted.

Emailed queries to the health ministry spokesperson did not elicit any response.

Meanwhile, India has also started domestic production of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) to reduce infant mortality and morbidity due to pneumococcal pneumonia. It has been introduced in 19 districts of Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and 18 districts of Rajasthan. In August, the central government launched the indigenously manufactured qHPV (Human Papillomavirus) vaccine, which it plans to introduce in the vaccination program as a two-dose regimen.

In addition, the government has created a digital system called Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) to ensure vaccine stocks, their logistics and temperature-tracking at all cold chain points from national to district level.