Over the last two days, close to 2,000 students in the 10-17 age group have been vaccinated under an exclusive school-level drive ordered by the State Government to immunise them against diphtheria.
Non-immunised adults are flocking to various hospitals to get themselves vaccinated, as the total number of diphtheria positive cases in the district rose to 36, Reproductive and Child Health Officer Sarala Nair said on Thursday. When enquired, it was found that many of these adults had not got their young children vaccinated, the health officer said. They were asked to get the children also immunised.
The school-level drive aims to cover 2.5 lakh students in over 430 schools. These institutions are in areas identified as vulnerable to diphtheria, most of these bordering the outbreak-hit Malapuram district.
The drive aims to cover both non-immunised and partially immunised students. Children in the 0-5 age group will be covered under the routine immunisation schedule done at health centres.
Drive to continue
The special initiative in the schools would continue and the duration would vary with the number of children per school. “We can immunise only 100-150 students per schedule (one day),” Reproductive and Child Health Officer Sarala Nair said. “Therefore, a time-frame of a week or so cannot be fixed, as the immunisation will go on till the target is achieved.”
As per a decision taken at a meeting on July 15, elected representatives in panchayats and office-bearers of parent-teacher associations are involved in spreading awareness on the benefits of vaccination and persuading non-immunised adults and their children to go in for vaccination. Both groups have been tasked with ensuring total turnout of students at the targeted schools.
Dr. Sarala Nair said there were 6,000 children in Kozhikode district who were either partially immunised or had not taken any type of vaccination at all. The number could be ten times more in Malapuram. We need to focus on covering this group in the ongoing programme,” she said.
