Devika*, a housewife from Coimbatore, is worried these days, as the vaccination schedule of her four-month-old baby has been deferred in the light of the COVID-19 lockdown.
She was apprehensive about taking her child to a hospital during the initial few weeks of the lockdown, and her’s is not an isolated case. Like in many other areas of public health, the pandemic has disrupted childhood immunisation services.
A recent report of the World Health Organisation warned that 80 million children under the age of one were at risk of diphtheria, measles and polio, as routine immunisation services all over the world were being hindered by the pandemic.
Medical practitioners said that vaccination schedules of several children, especially those aged below one, were deferred in March and April due to the pandemic’s impact, including lockdown restrictions and minimal functioning of healthcare facilities in the private sector. Fear among the public of going to hospitals was also a factor. K. Kolandaswamy, who retired from the long-served post of Director of Public Health in Tamil Nadu recently, said, “It is high time to resume childhood vaccination services in full scale.”
According to Coimbatore-based senior paediatrician M. Ramaswamy, disruption of childhood vaccination services could leave vulnerable segments of children susceptible to diseases that have a higher mortality rate than that of COVID-19. “Vaccinations for children aged zero to one and one to six can be continued,” he added.
Dr. Kolandaswamy said the government and the Indian Academy of Pediatrics had issued instructions at the very beginning of the pandemic, stating that vaccination services can be continued. “People aged above 60 and those with comorbidity were advised to avoid non-emergency hospital visits,” he said.
To address the gap, the government is now conducting outreach sessions through hospitals in the government sector. While vaccination services were available on Wednesdays, extended sessions are now being held on Fridays in several government hospitals.
Small medical care facilities in the private sector are said to be facing a huge backlog, as many of them remained closed or were only partially functional during March-end, April and early May. “We gave video consultations to several parents who could not bring their children. Now, we are covering deferred schedules of DTP (diphtheria, tetanus toxoids and pertussis), MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) and flu vaccines on a priority basis. Parents who missed schedules can consult the respective paediatricians for a catch-up schedule,” said Karthik Balasubramanian, Consultant Neonatologist and Paediatrician with Women's Center by Motherhood, Coimbatore.
As vaccinations such as those for BCG, hepatitis B and zero dose polio are given at birth, their schedules have not been impacted.
In the government sector, disruption of vaccination schedules was not as severe as in the private sector as all government medical facilities, from primary health centre to medical college hospitals, functioned in a full-fledged manner during the lockdown.
According to V. Booma, Head of the Department of Paediatrics at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, the number of births per month at the facility ranged from 800 to 900 during the lockdown, as against 650 to 750 per month before the lockdown.
(*Name changed on request)
