Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

Good response to changed mode of immunisation

— Photo: M. Karunakaran

PROTECTIVE MEASURE: Mothers taking their children for vaccination to a PHC at Okkiyam Thoraipakkam, near Chennai on Wednesday.

CHENNAI: When Tamil Nadu revised the mode of delivery of its immunisation programme on Wednesday, health officials did not expect it to be a success. Despite officials’ trepidation, barring a few places, mothers came in droves, bringing their children to be immunised at the primary health centres.

A total of 56,052 children and 9,072 pregnant women received immunisation shots on Wednesday. In the “mop-up” round aimed at covering all those who had missed their regular schedules, the target was 59,000 children and 11,000 pregnant women, according to Director of Public Health P. Padmanabhan. “Frankly, after the vaccine deaths we did not expect such a good response from the mothers. We would say this is a very successful programme,” Health Secretary V.K. Subburaj said.

After four children from Tiruvallur district died on being administered the measles vaccine on April 23, parents were reluctant to take their children to the local health centres for vaccination. The government of Tamil Nadu therefore decided to revise its strategy to administer vaccines, opting to bring children to the PHCs instead of sending the vaccines to the villages. The idea was that the whole process would happen under the supervision of the doctors in the PHCs, where facilities are also available for emergency treatment.

Though no major pre-publicity was done by the department and information was communicated only through newspaper reports, the response was good, Dr. Padmanabhan said. In some remote areas, vehicles were used to bring the mothers and children to the PHCs. In others, when mothers took autos to the PHC, their travel expenses were reimbursed.

Once they arrived at the PHC, the children who were administered the vaccine were asked to wait for about an hour, to monitor them for any adverse reaction. In the interim period they were also served bread, milk and snacks in the PHCs.

Some of the mothers expressed their confidence in bringing children to the PHCs as it was a larger medical centre with facilities to take care of the babies in case there were problems.

They also added that had the regular immunisation day been held in the village, they would not have gone there to get the vaccination.

Dr. Padmanabhan said the government had only a couple of days’ preparation for this vaccination programme and that accounted for the poor response in some of the centres.

However, the department intends to spread information about bringing children to the PHCs for vaccination and about the facilities available in the larger centres intensively so that the next immunisation day (May 7 — Wednesday) will see better coverage, he added.

Handbills and pamphlets have already been sent out for the purpose.

In the remotest villages which are served by only one PHC, the government is considering setting up one outreach centre for vaccination under the supervision of a doctor, he added.

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