Tag: vaccination

WHO asks Southeast Asian countries to focus on unvaccinated children, strengthen routine immunisation

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday called for focused efforts to provide life-saving vaccines to nearly 4.6 million unvaccinated children in Southeast Asia as countries intensify efforts to equal or surpass pre-Covid vaccination coverage levels.

The number of unvaccinated or zero dose children more than doubled from 2 million in 2019 to 4.6 million in the region by 2021 despite efforts by countries to maintain or restore routine childhood immunisation, said Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO, South-East Asia.

“We need to urgently address gaps and challenges aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Singh said.

She was addressing representatives of health ministries, national immunisation advisory groups and partner agencies participating in a four-day regional workshop to strengthen routine immunisation capacities post-Covid.

“We need to accurately identify high-risk areas with high numbers of zero-dose children, and rapidly improve access and uptake of routine immunisation,” Singh said.

The catch-up immunisation activities and special campaigns being rolled out by countries must be reviewed and measures like increasing the age limit of target populations adopted where needed for filling the immunity gaps, she said.

The behavioural and social drivers of immunisation should be identified to guide focused interventions and strategies to engage communities to accelerate the demand for vaccination, she added.

The regional director emphasised the need for periodic mapping of at-risk populations and for developing actionable plans to address gaps in immunisation.

Noting that routine immunisation coverage in the region has been highly variable, she said several countries have maintained high childhood vaccination coverage even during the COVID-19 pandemic and are now accelerating progress.

Some others where coverage declined in 2020 but stabilised in 2021 and 2022 can now reach pre-pandemic levels. However, there are also countries where coverage continues to be sub-optimal.

Singh commended Timor-Leste for introducing the pneumococcal vaccine in the catch-up campaigns and Nepal for becoming the fourth country globally to introduce the typhoid conjugate vaccine in 2022.

She also complimented Bangladesh for restoring immunisation services to pre-Covid levels by June 2020; India for launching an intensified vaccination drive, Mission Indradhanush; and Indonesia for completing the readiness requirements for use of the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 within a record time of two weeks from the notification of type 2 circulating vaccine-derived polio outbreak in November 2022.

The WHO South-East Asia region continues to be free of wild poliovirus and sustains its maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination status, she added.

With persistent effort over the years, routine immunisation coverage in the region had crossed 90 percent in 2019. The number of zero dose children declined from over 5 million in 2010 to 2 million in 2019, according to Singh.

However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the coverage of DPT3 (third dose of vaccine to protect against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus), which is the standard indicator to measure vaccination coverage, declined from 91 percent in 2019 to 85 percent in 2020 and fell further to 82 percent in 2021, sharply increasing the number of unvaccinated and under-vaccinated children in a region which has the biggest birth cohort, Singh said.

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COVID-19 hampered childhood vaccination rollout, may lead to increase in preventable diseases: UNICEF

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on almost every aspect of life, including healthcare. One of the most significant impacts of the pandemic has been the disruption of routine vaccination programs, leading to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.

According to a new report by UNICEF, people all over the world lost confidence in the importance of routine childhood vaccines against killer diseases like measles and polio during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rising childhood vaccines hesitancy

The report, UNICEF’s flagship annual State of the World’s Children, surveyed 55 countries and found that public perception of vaccines for children declined between 2019 and 2021 in 52 of them.

This trend was a “worrying warning signal” of rising vaccine hesitancy amid misinformation, dwindling trust in governments and political polarisation, said Catherine Russell, UNICEF executive director.

ALSO READ | India records highest daily COVID-19 cases in 8 months

The change in perception is particularly worrying as it comes after the largest sustained backslide in childhood immunisation in a generation during COVID disruptions. In total, 67 million children missed out on one or more potentially lifesaving vaccines during the pandemic, and efforts to catch up have stalled despite increasing outbreaks.

The data was collected by the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which found that the picture of vaccine confidence varied globally.

In countries including Papua New Guinea and South Korea, agreement with the statement “vaccines are important for children” declined by 44 percent, and more than a third in Ghana, Senegal, and Japan.

ALSO READ | Resurging Covid — it’s time to reintroduce the aggressive testing, vaccination and behaviour regimen

In the United States, it declined by 13.6 percentage points. In India, China, and Mexico, confidence remained broadly the same or increased.

Outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases

The consequences of vaccine hesitancy are becoming increasingly evident, with outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases being reported in many countries – mostly in Africa but also in the United States of America and India (of measles), the report said.

In India, about 5.7 million children, about ten percent of those to be vaccinated, were left out because of COVID-related logistical problems. While over 46 million children in India have been vaccinated, the 2022 results, still being tabulated, will only be available in June.

UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children Report says the percentage of infants left behind is high in many countries, including Myanmar, where it’s 55 percent, Nigeria, Indonesia, Brazil, and Afghanistan. In all these countries, the backlog is roughly between 25 and 30 percent.

ALSO READ | BMC asks parents to urgently immunise their children amid rising cases of measles in Mumbai

With one in five children not fully vaccinated and preventable illnesses beginning to happen, the UNICEF report stressed the importance of all countries having the funds for vaccines, new vaccines being developed quickly, supply chains being efficient, and digital technologies helping ensure the data regarding immunisation schemes are accurate and up to date.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of vaccines in protecting individuals and communities. It is essential to continue to promote vaccination as a vital public health intervention and address vaccine hesitancy through education and communication. Failure to do so risks undermining the significant gains made in public health over the last few decades.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

UNICEF lauds U-WIN app, says 3 lakh ‘missed children’ are India’s big target for improving immunisation

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The newly launched U-WIN app could help India to overcome the limitation in keeping track of vaccination doses for children, Dr Mangesh Gadhari, UNICEF India health officer, told News18 in an exclusive interview.

“For decades, healthcare authorities and service providers have been facing the challenge of keeping track of the next dose of routine immunisation to children and also facing challenges with caregivers not bringing the maternal child protection (MCP) card during immunisation,” Gadhari said.

Therefore, the U-WIN app will help with booking slots and sending reminders before, as well as, on the due date, Gadhari said. “From booking slots, sending reminders before and on the due date to maintaining records and certificates (of the vaccination doses for children), it (the U-WIN app) made the entire process easy, trackable and smooth,” he added.

The app will also help with the problem of intrastate, interstate, intradistrict or interdistrict migration of families as the vaccine acknowledgement and immunisation cards linked to ABHA ID (Ayushman Bharat Heath Account) can be accessed by all states and districts through a common database.

Besides, it will further help the country battle with the problem of ‘Missed Children’, also called ‘zero dose children’, who fail to receive even a single dose of vaccination.  Meanwhile, there are approximately three lakh ‘zero dose children’ in India, as per the News18 report.

Gadhari added that he doesn’t foresee any major hiccups in the rollout of the app as there has been a lot of learning from the Co-WIN programme.

The Union health ministry launched the U-WIN app this year to digitise India’s universal vaccination programme. After the success of the CoWIN platform, the same concept has been replicated for the U-WIN app as well.

The pilot app has already been launched across the country and manual entry of data from the registers to software has started as well, according to the ministry. The U-WIN app aims to cater to 2.6 crore newborns and 2.9 crore pregnant women every year.

The issue of India’s ‘Missed Children’

Gadhari said missed children are India’s big target for improving immunisation coverage since the launch of Mission Indradhanush in 2014-15. He explained that six phases of the ‘Mission Indradhanush (MI)’ and ‘Intensified Mission Indradhanush’ were completed in districts with low immunisation.

The first two phases helped increase full immunisation coverage by 6.5 percent and after six phases, there was an 18 percent improvement in full immunisation coverage according to the National Family Health Survey 5 (NFHS 5) over NFHS4.

He mentioned that other possible ways to reduce zero dose or missed children is through the micro-plans for routine immunisation at the village level, and by taking primary health care close to communities for better community participation.

He further emphasised that UNICEF will continue to support the Indian government’s immunisation programme to help achieve universal health coverage and accelerate sustainable development goals.

Gadhari said that India is focusing on digital health after the pandemic and it is an important step towards achieving the targets of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and health-related Sustainable Development Goal by 2030.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

A fresh Covid wave: Let’s spruce up our health ecosystem in no time

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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With a fresh Covid-19 spurt in China, Japan and the US ringing global  alarm bells, India too has got into a fighting mode. China is grappling with a massive surge in Covid cases after letting go its zero-Covid strategy. The current surge in Covid-19 infections in China is believed to be driven by the BF.7 sub-variant of Omicron. Infections have risen in many other countries including Japan, South Korea, Brazil and the United States.

While the new variant has been found to be highly transmissible, it is reportedly not very infectious. The image of Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya chairing a high-level meeting of officials – all seated with masks –brings back memories of the days when masks had become mandatory. For the last couple of months, all the Covid protocols like social distancing and mandatory masks have been eclipsed.  The number of cases dipped, may be because the testing took a back seat. The disease is apparently no longer dreaded. The infection curve in India became almost flat.  

A fresh wave?

The three scenarios that could drive a new wave are highly infectious new variants; free movement and crowding of people with existing variants or strains of virus;  and large number of unvaccinated people. A new wave can be precipitated by waning immunity among people, emergence of a more transmissible variant and relaxations in Covid appropriate behaviour.  The virus has mutated and evolved ever since the first wave of the pandemic. The new variants are less virulent than the earlier ones. However, the fact that the original formula of existing vaccines may not be matched for the new circulating variants,  could pose an even greater danger to the seniors and those with a weakened immune system.

Also read: Virus is spreading more rapidly than before in China

Four cases of Omicron sub-variant BF7, apparently the strain that is driving the current surge of cases in China, has already been detected in India. There is a need to monitor in real-time the dynamics of the transmission of this variant in China and the proportion of its various sub-lineages and new strains with potentially altered biological characteristics, including their clinical manifestations, transmissibility and pathogenicity.

Way Forward 

Vaccination is key to controlling the epidemic. The hybrid immunity developed by vaccination actually helped the Indian population minimise the spread. But the current concern is that the vaccination programme has significantly slowed down. Vaccine development in India has done reasonably well especially on the technology transfer needed for making vaccines – both viral vectors and protein-based. But a lot more needs to be done. India must now update its vaccines for the new variants. For this India must spruce up its research and build a more robust infrastructure for vaccine development.

The immunity booster programme with additional dose in the country wasn’t very successful because of a very low penetration. The availability of boosters should be broadened to all hospitals in the rural areas.  The vaccination drive should be taken closer to the people at the community level by creating satellite vaccination centres near rural villages.

India should also initiate another precaution dose after the booster dose especially for the vulnerable population to tackle the new set of variants. A strategy needs to be outlined to check the incoming cases at the international and domestic airports. There should be new guidelines for the travellers from abroad.

We need a multi-pronged approach of surveillance including sampling at the point of entries into the country. Genetic sequencing must be used on a large scale to examine the spectrum of variants. The government should gear up the whole genome sequencing of positive case samples. This will help in tracking the new variants.

The strategy should be a blend of scaled up public health infrastructure, clinical and genomic surveillance,  Covid appropriate behaviour, keeping the people updated on the evolution of the virus, expansion of testing, agility in policy building and communication management. It will take some time before the pandemic is tamed. The main lesson learned from the pandemic is that the country should be always prepared for any kind of health emergency. For this, there is a need to spruce up the infrastructure of our health ecosystem. The earlier, the better.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Maharashtra to vaccinate cattle for free amid lumpy skin disease

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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In a bid to check the spread of lumpy skin disease in cattle, the Maharashtra Animal Husbandry Department has directed authorities of all districts to speed up vaccination which will be offered free, officials said. The disease has so far claimed the lives of 43 cattle in the state.

“The Maharashtra government has decided to offer vaccination against lumpy skin disease virus for free with 50 lakh vials to be made available from the next week,” Sachindra Pratap Singh, the state commissioner for Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development Department, said on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters in Mumbai, Singh said farmers will not have to pay any charges for the vaccination of cattle. The state government is going to receive 50 lakh vials of the vaccine against the lumpy skin disease virus, he said.

Also read: Make organ donation mandatory after death; by living minors only under exceptional cases: Doctors

A total of 5,51,120 livestock in 1,755 villages within a five-kilometre radius of the infected area have been vaccinated, the Animal Husbandry department said in a release on Monday. Out of the total of 2,664 infected livestock in the affected villages, 1,520 have recovered after treatment, it added.

“The lumpy skin disease among cattle is caused by a virus. If not treated in time, it turns fatal. More than 50,000 infected cattle have died in Rajasthan of this disease. Similar cases have been reported from Punjab and Haryana as well,” said an official.

Singh said the disease was spreading rapidly in the state and there was a need to raise public awareness on a large scale.

“In order to keep the mortality rate down due to lumpy skin disease in Maharashtra, a batch of 10 lakh vaccine doses has been received to vaccinate cows within a radius of five km of an affected area,” the release said.

Instructions have been given that the vaccination should be done at a faster pace and continuous efforts should be made to bring the disease under control.

Also read: Over 47% antibiotic formulations used in India in 2019 unapproved: Lancet study

The Animal Husbandry department also said that Rs 1 crore should be made available from the District Planning Committee for each district for the procurement of vaccines and medicines useful in curbing the ailment.

“A vaccination campaign should be conducted in collaboration with private livestock supervisors to control the disease and their services should be taken on a remuneration basis. Vacant posts in the animal husbandry department must be immediately filled on a contract basis,” the release said.

The Maharashtra government has already declared the whole state a “controlled area” to curb the spread of the disease and has banned the holding of markets, races and exhibitions connected to cattle.

Singh said his department observed that private veterinary doctors were prescribing expensive antibiotics and other supportive medicines for the disease, whereas all the necessary medicines were available at government veterinary dispensaries and mini veterinary polyclinics in tehsils.

“All farmers should avail free treatment for their affected cattle at their doorstep by contacting government veterinary dispensaries nearby and livestock development officers,” he said.

Also read: Twice-daily nasal saline flushing may reduce COVID-19 severity, reveals study

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Centre asks states to restart monitoring ILI, SARI cases amid Covid surge in southeast Asia

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Citing the resurgence of coronavirus cases in southeast Asia and parts of Europe, the Centre has asked the states to restart monitoring influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory infections so that no early warning signals are missed and Covid is controlled.

Testing for influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) cases has been the pillars of Covid management for the government. However, the testings were stopped recently as India has been recording a steady decline in COVID-19 cases.

As part of intensified surveillance, patients being hospitalised with ILI and SARI will again be tested for COVID-19 and positive samples will be sent for genome sequencing.

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In a letter, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has asked all states and Union Territories to ensure an adequate number of samples are submitted to the INSACOG network for timely detection of new Covid variants.

He also stressed on maintaining testing according to protocols, observing all precautions and not letting the guard down while resuming economic and social activities.

“Effective surveillance by monitoring of emerging clusters of new cases, if any, testing as per norms and monitoring of ILI and SARI cases shall be taken up on a continued basis to ensure no early warning signals are missed and spread of infection can be controlled,” Bhushan said in the letter.

Also Read: Uttar Pradesh eases COVID restrictions; permits swimming pool, anganwadi centres to reopen

He further said the state machinery should create required awareness and ensure adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour and practise effective hand and respiratory hygiene.

With a spike in COVID-19 cases across Southeast Asia and some countries of Europe, a high-level meeting was chaired by Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on March 16 where the states were advised to focus on aggressive genome sequencing, intensified surveillance and overall vigil on the Covid situation, Bhushan said in the letter.

He also emphasised continued focus on the five-fold strategy of test, track, treat and vaccination and adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour. “All the states and Union Territories must observe all precautions and not let the guard down while resuming economic and social activities,” Bhushan stated.

(more…)

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

EC reviews COVID, law and order situation in poll-bound states, stresses on need for vaccinations

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Election Commission on Thursday reviewed the Covid situation with the Union health secretary and health experts and emphasised the need for vaccination of all eligible people in five poll-bound states, sources said.

In a separate meeting, the poll panel also discussed the law and order situation in the five states — Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur — with Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla. Besides Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, the meeting to assess the Covid situation was also attended by AIIMS director Randeep Guleria and ICMR’s Balram Bhargava, sources aware of the interactions said.

The poll panel carried out a “complete review” of the Covid status and took inputs from medical experts on safety measures to be ensured during campaigning and polling. It stressed to the health secretary the need to ensure complete vaccination for all eligible persons, the sources said. In an earlier meeting with Bhushan on December 27, the poll panel had asked him to ramp up the vaccination drive in the five states.

Elections are due in the five states and the Commission is expected to poll dates in the next few days.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow