“I didn’t know immunization could have saved my child,” Munni Begum reflected. More than thirty years ago, Munni’s infant son, Zulfikar Ahmed, fell victim to polio. Now she volunteers as a ‘change agent’. This involves working in her local community of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, where she encourages other mothers to immunise their children and […]
polio
Video: Dr Joël Calmet on polio, immunisation, and COVID-19
Amidst the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, UNICEF issued a stark warning last month that “South Asia could face yet another health emergency if children across the region do not receive their life-saving vaccine shots.” It noted “the South Asia region is also home to two of the last polio endemic countries in the world, Afghanistan and […]
Intensified immunisation drive in Maharashtra to benefit almost 80,000 kids
Almost 80,000 children and more than 13,000 pregnant women will benefit from an intensified immunisation drive in Maharashtra. The news comes from the state on the heels of an announcement earlier this year that the Government of India was stepping up its immunisation efforts through Indradhanush 2: an enhanced version of the Government’s vaccination drive […]
What World Polio Day taught India
Today marked World Polio Day, an annual observance acknowledging what once was a dominant threat to global health – and could well become a thing of the past entirely so long as momentum is sustained as we approach polio’s endgame. With the observance came a landmark report from the World Health Organization (WHO): wild poliovirus […]
Indradhanush 2: Government ramps up vaccination efforts
The Centre will expand its efforts to improve vaccination coverage throughout the country with “Indradhanush 2”, building on existing efforts to achieve ninety percent immunisation coverage against a plethora of infectious diseases. Launched in December 2014, Mission Indradhanush aimed to cover all children up to two years of age and pregnant women with vaccination coverage, […]
Uttarakhand makes vaccination a must for schoolchildren
Immunisation rates in Uttarakhand fell by more than thirty percentage points in two years. Now the state is using stringent measures to drive immunisation rates upwards. Immunisation rates in the state fell to just 61.32 percent of children aged nine to eleven months in 2017-18. This was down from 99.3 percent coverage in the 2015-16 […]
India not taking advantage of its own vaccines?
India is a leading producer of vaccines. It has enjoyed numerous vaccination campaign successes in the past. Despite this, around 60,000 Indian children under five die of vaccine-preventable diseases every year. India has demonstrated its capacity for successful vaccination campaigns in the past. On March 27, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared India polio-free. […]
Keeping India polio free
Marking World Polio Day on 24 October, 20 million doses of Inactivated Polio Vaccine ShanIPVTM have been delivered to the Indian government by Sanofi Pasteur. These vaccinations were provided to the government via Sanofi’s affiliated company, Hyderabad-based Shantha Biotechnics. The vaccine is notable as the only inactivated vaccine currently being produced domestically. The vaccine is […]
Smallpox and polio return to Delhi – thanks to a clerical error
A Delhi government report has announced that two people died of smallpox and 11 died of polio in the capital last year. This announcement caused panic that two eradicated diseases had reemerged in India, though the announcement has since been declared a mistake, likely due to a clerical error. The Delhi government has attempted to […]
India is now rolling out the introduction of Inactivated Polio Vaccine in its routine immunisation programme; New polio case detected in New Delhi
With its last reported case of a wild polio infection dating back to January 2011, India completed the three-year mandatory period that a country needs to stay free of fresh polio infections in 2014, allowing it to be endorsed as a polio-free country. India is now introducing injectable polio vaccine (IPV) in its universal immunisation […]