Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The Centre on Friday launched the nationwide expansion of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine under the Universal Immunization Programme with an aim to reduce under 5 mortalities caused due to pneumonia.
Thus far, the PCV vaccine through government hospitals was available only in five states — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
Two states, Haryana and Goa, on the other hand, were offering the PCV vaccine as part of the UIP from the state government kitties.
This vaccine is offered in three doses at 1.5 months, 3.5 months and 9 months.
In India, nearly 8.5 lakh kids under the age of 5 die every year of which 16 % of deaths are estimated to be caused due to various forms of pneumonia and nearly a half of these pneumonia mortalities are related to pneumococcus bacteria. There are, however, some other vaccine-preventable infections too, that lead to pneumonia in kids.
While launching the nationwide expansion of the vaccine, Union health minister Mansukh Mandviya said that pneumonia caused by pneumococcus is the most common cause of severe pneumonia in children.
“In India, around 16% of deaths in children occur due to pneumonia. The nationwide rollout of PCV will reduce child mortality by around 60%”, said the minister.
Under the Union government’s UIP, 12 types of immunisation are offered free of cost against several vaccine-preventable diseases targeting close to 26.7 million newborns and 29 million pregnant women annually.
The diseases against which the inoculation is offered include diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, rubella, a severe form of childhood tuberculosis, rotavirus diarrhoea, hepatitis b and meningitis and pneumonia caused by haemophilus influenza type B.
“Sub-nationally the immunization is available against 2 diseases – pneumococcal pneumonia and Japanese Encephalitis; of which PCV is being nationally expanded today, while JE vaccine is provided only in endemic districts,” said an official.