The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : One-time vaccination for Japanese encephalitis

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 04, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

One-time vaccination for Japanese encephalitis

Staff Reporter

Thiruvananthapuram:

The mass vaccination programme against Japanese encephalitis, a vector-borne disease with high mortality rate, will be held in the district from July 15 to August 5.

Under the programme, 7, 48,605 children in the age group of 1-15 years will be administered the injectible vaccine. A district task force, headed by the District Collector, is overseeing the conduct of the programme.

The vaccine will be administered to children in all government, aided and private schools and the district health administration has already been in touch with the Education Department so that a directive is issued to all school authorities to participate in the vaccination drive.

Thiruvananthapuram is the second district chosen by the Central government in the State to launch mass vaccination against Japanese encephalitis.

After Alappuzha, Thiruvananthapuram is one of the most vulnerable districts for the disease, where scattered cases are being reported throughout the year.

The vaccination was successfully piloted in Alappuzha last year where about 67 per cent of coverage was achieved.

Spread by Culex mosquito species, this viral disease starts off like ordinary flu, with fever, chills and nausea. But deterioration happens rapidly. The disease mostly affects children in the 1-15 year group. About 30 per cent of those infected with the disease dies and in another 40 per cent, severe permanent disability has been reported.

“This year, eight cases of Japanese encephalitis have been reported in the State so far. All of the cases were deaths, four of which was in Thiruvananthapuram. JE has no specific treatment, only supportive care can be given. Hence it is imperative that the public makes use of this opportunity to vaccinate their children against JE free of cost,” State Malaria Officer A. S. Pradeep Kumar said at a media workshop on JE held here on Friday.

Additional Director of Health Services (H & FW) and the State Programme Officer for JE Mass Vaccination P. K. Jameela, pointed out that JE was the only mosquito-borne disease which could be prevented through vaccination.

“This is a one-time vaccine which will provide life-long immunity against JE to children. It is a safe vaccine and has been in use in JE-endemic countries for the past 20 years. The vaccine is being imported from China by the Union Health Ministry. This vaccine is not available in the open market,” Dr. Jameela said.

There was a proposal to introduce JE vaccine across the State, with each district covered in phases, Dr. Jameela added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala

News Update

Stories in this Section