As many as 53,866 children, aged below two, who have missed their routine immunisation in the five Hyderabad Karnataka districts of Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal, and Ballari, Bengaluru (Urban) and in the jurisdiction of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will be covered under the third phase of the Centre’s ‘Mission Indradhanush’ that was launched in the city on Thursday.
Health Minister U.T. Khader, who along with Minister of State for Medical Education Sharanprakash R. Patil, launched the third phase on the occasion of World Health Day on Thursday, said the programme was aimed at covering all those children who had either missed vaccination or were partially vaccinated against nine vaccine-preventable diseases, including diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis B. Expecting mothers would also be immunised for tetanus, he said.
As part of the World Health Organisation’s ‘Polio Endgame Strategy’, administration of inactivated poliovirus vaccine, which has now been introduced as part of the national immunisation programme, was also launched in Karnataka on the occasion.
The injectable vaccine, which kills polio viruses, will be used alongside the oral polio vaccine.
