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Immunisation

  • Mind the gap: equity and trends in coverage of maternal, newborn, and child health services in 54 Countdown countries

    Increasing the coverage of key maternal, newborn, and child health interventions is essential if Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 4 and 5 are to be reached. We have assessed equity and trends in coverage rates of a key set of interventions through a summary index, to provide overall insight into past performance and progress perspectives.

  • Countdown to 2015 for maternal, newborn, and child survival : the 2008 report on tracking coverage of interventions

    The Countdown to 2015 for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Survival initiative monitors coverage of priority interventions to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) for reduction of maternal and child mortality. We aimed to report on 68 countries which have 97% of maternal and child deaths worldwide, and on 22 interventions that have been proven to improve maternal, newborn, and child survival.

  • Ailing policy

    VACCINES and domestic immunisation policy form a critical component of a nation

  • Vaccine worries

    ON January 15, the production licences of three vaccine-manufacturing public enterprises under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW) were cancelled, and they were ordered to suspend production forthwith by the then Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), M.

  • Anti-polio drive begins in Sindh today

    : With the detection of polio virus prevalence in the environs of a couple of towns, health workers in the city will undertake their polio eradication efforts during a three-day immunisation drive being launched across the province on Tuesday.

  • Food boosts immunity, says study:

    Researchers have uncovered evidence to support what mothers have long been saying: immune system needs food to function properly. Working on mice, University of Chicago researchers found that restricting their subjects' diet by 30% decreased the amount of available B cells, which produce antibodies and maintain immune memory.

  • Polio immunisation drive in Sindh being intensified

    The Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), Sindh, has decided to refocus the routine immunisation efforts to realise the goal of making Sindh a polio free province.

  • Exploring the determinants of childhood immunisation

    This study attempts to analyse the effects of some selected demographic and socio-economic predictor variables on the likelihood of immunisation of a child for six vaccine-preventable diseases covered under the Universal Immunisation Programme. It focuses on immunisation coverage (a) at the all India level, (b) in rural and urban areas, (c) in Bihar, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, and (d) for three groups of states, the empowered action group, north-eastern and other states. The study applies a logistic regression model to National Family Health Survey-2 (1998-99) data.

  • Some parents opposing anti-polio drive

    Taking notice of resistance by some parents to immunisation of their children against polio, District Nazim Kanwar Naveed Jamil has constituted a three-member committee to ensure that polio drops are administered to all children up to five years of age throughout the district during a three-day anti-polio campaign beginning on Tuesday. The committee comprises the DCO, the EDO health (focal person) and the SP City. The decision was taken at a meeting held at the district nazim secretariat here to finalise arrangements for the campaign. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Jamil said that due to the attitude of some parents who were resisting the administration of anti-polio drops, 297,000 children in the district could not be placed at risk. He said that at the request of the district government, prayer leaders, public representatives and social workers had tried to persuade such parents to get their children immunised but some of them were still adamant. The district nazim said that such a state of affairs could not be tolerated. He directed the EDO Health to prepare a list of the resisting parents and said that come what may, their children would be administered anti-polio drops. He directed the officers of the health department to collect information about such parents. He directed the employees of all the departments of the district government not only to ensure that their own children were administered anti-polio drops but the children of their neighbours were also immunised. He directed the EDO health to include maximum number of female workers in the anti-polio teams to ensure success of the campaign. He appealed to social activists, civil servants and public representatives to make sure that each and every locality was visited by health workers during the drive. He said that even after the latest round of the campaign, the drive would continue in all the hospitals and anti-polio centres, specially at main entrance of the district, would be activated.

  • Activities intensified to root out polio: official

    Aiming to achieve historic success by total eradication of polio from Pakistan, the government is intensifying schedule of supplementary immunisation activities to include four rounds of National Immunisation Days (NIDs) and four sub-national activities in 2008. The next campaign will commence from March 4. This was stated by the Extended Programme of Immunisation (EPI) manager, H.B. Memon, as he briefed the media persons here at an event organised by the United Nations Children Fund (Unicef). The strategy works in Pakistan, still one of the four countries globally that are still polio endemic, Mr Memon said. He said: "Before initiation of the programme the number of cases of polio was estimated to be about 25,000 to 30,000 a year. Some 230,000 children were saved from paralysis after NIDs were introduced in 1994. The number of cases dropped to 1,147 in 1997, 40 cases in 2006, 32 in 2007 and only two in 2008 (Nawabshah and Hyderabad).' Informing about the upcoming sub-national campaign, a total of 16.79 million children under five years of age would be targeted in 54 districts of the country. A total of 43,033 vaccination teams, 7,922 area supervisors and 1,296 zonal supervisors would participate in the campaign. The campaign activities will also be monitored by more than 500 national monitors. Stressing on increasing geographical restriction of wild polio virus, the EPI representative said the majority of districts had been polio free for almost two years. Sixty per cent of the cases in 2006 were from six districts only. There had been no cases from the Federally Administered Northern Areas (Fana) since 1998, Azad Jammu and Kashmir since 2000 or Islamabad since 2003. The vast majority of population, in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, lived in polio free areas, as wild polio virus transmission is currently focal in two main areas

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