Municipal Administration and Minority Affairs Minister Qamarul Islam launched the flagship programme of the union government Indradhanush to achieve cent per cent immunisation of all the children and pregnant women in Kalaburagi district. This has been declared as one among the 201 districts identified as high focus districts where nearly 50 per cent of the population are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.
Mr. Islam in his brief address after launching the programme in Kalaburagi city on Tuesday, said that Indradanush was one of the most important programmes which would help in bringing down the Infant and Maternal Mortality rates and prevent the children from crippling diseases like polio. He wanted the health workers involved in the programme to work with commitment to achieve cent percent coverage of all the eligible children and pregnant mothers in the district.
In Karnataka, six districts including Ballari, Kalaburagi, Koppal, Raichur, Yadgir in the Hyderabad Karnataka region and Bengaluru (Urban) have been selected by the Union Government for taking up the focussed vaccination and immunization programme. In the country the union government had identified 201 districts in all where the immunization levels were nearly less than 50 per cent under the Indradhanush programme for achieving universal immunisation of all the eligible children and pregnant mothers.
Indradhanush would cover seven childhood diseases (providing seven antigens/vaccines to the during the drive). Each round under the programme would run for seven days in a month from April to July. The intensified immunisation campaigns in the selected districts would help reduce morbidity and mortality due to disease that can be prevented by vaccines.
As per the official data available only 65 per cent immunization has been achieved in the country posing threat of re-emergence of the polio, apart from high morbidy and mortality among children due to vaccine preventable diseases.
