Tamil Nadu - Vellore   

School students immunised at CMC Hospital

Photo: D. Gopalakrishnan

Precautionary measure: A school student being administered the third dose of Hepatitis-B vaccine at CMC Hospital in Vellore on Wednesday. —

VELLORE: About 2,000 children studying in schools in and around Vellore have so far been covered under the Hepatitis-B National Prevention Programme being implemented by the Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore.

The hospital initiated the programme in December last in partnership with mission hospitals in India and the Bristol Myer’s Squibb Foundation and in collaboration with ‘A Hepatitis B Awareness And Safety’ (AHBAAS) initiative.

One hundred and seventy students of Vani Vidyalaya Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Tharapadavedu Municipality near Vellore were administered the third dose of the Hepatitis-B (H-B) vaccine at an immunisation clinic conducted on the Norman Auditorium on the CMC Hospital premises on Wednesday. They had their first dose in December. S. Soundararajan, correspondent of the school, sponsored the H-B immunisation programme for his schoolchildren.

George M. Chandy, professor of Gastroenterology at the CMC Hospital, told The Hindu that the programme was part of the hospital’s plan to cover all schoolchildren in Vellore district within three years - by December 2011 - with the objective of making the district H-B-free.

Three more schools participated in the programme. The hospital charges Rs.15 per dose, which is the price at which it gets supplies from companies.

A hepatology team from the hospital would visit any school interested in the programme and make a presentation on the need for H-B immunisation for the children. Being a national programme, the hospital is encouraging the mission hospitals in the country to conduct similar H-B programmes in their areas.

The hospital is motivating the mission hospitals through the CMC’s telemedicine and distance education programme. While schoolchildren are covered through such mass immunisation clinics, any person can visit the liver clinic of the hospital between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays and get oneself immunised against H-B by paying Rs.15 per dose. Each one should have three doses. The second dose is taken one month after the first dose, while the third should be taken five months after the second dose.

Dr. Chandy said that H-B spread through injections, blood transfusion, from infected mothers to the children at childbirth and through sexual intercourse. H-B infection through blood transfusion could be prevented by asking blood banks to accept blood only from voluntary donors, sensitising people to accept blood transfusion only after ascertaining that the blood was free from H-B virus.

Infection through injections could be prevented through the insistence on the use of disposable needles. Ensuring that both partners are protected could prevent infection through intercourse. As for prevention of infection from mothers to children, all pregnant women should be subjected to H-B tests. In case the mother is infected, the child should be immunised against H-B and administered immunoglobulin immediately after birth and followed up through booster doses periodically to boost the child’s immunity.

On whether a three-dose immunisation in childhood was enough to protect a child for the rest of its life, Dr. Chandy said that according to the World Health Organisation, a three-dose immunisation in childhood was sufficient. But it was advisable for the child to have a second three-dose immunisation during adulthood to eliminate the possibility of the person getting infected owing to the reduced efficacy of the vaccine, which could have got weakened owing to the disruption in cold chain.

As far as Hepatitis-A was concerned, since it spread only through food and water, and treatment was very expensive (Rs.450 per dose), it was administered only to those who volunteered to pay for it, he said.

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