The introduction of new vaccines in the universal vaccination programmes has helped bring down the child mortality rate in rural areas of Pune.
In the five years, infant mortality went down from 388 to 232 and under five years mortality went down from 480 to 282 deaths while the number of live births remained almost the same above 60,000 annually, according to data provided by the Pune district health department.
From 480 deaths among kids aged under five years in 2015-16 the deaths have come down to 282 in the same category in 2019-10, said officials.
Although kids are not yet eligible for Covid19 vaccination, the central ministry has emphasised routine immunisation among kids in anticipation of the third wave.
As per the information from the Pune district health department, Zilla Parishad, the mortalities among infants, aged less than one year, and among children aged less than five have fallen in the past five years. This positive growth has been due to the various measures introduced in rural villages.
Dr Sachin Edake, district immunization officer, said, “In the past five years, we have introduced pentavalent which protects against five infections, measles, rubella, rotavirus, hepatitis B and others. Under universal immunisation programme, these vaccines are administered to kids.”
“Most mortalities happen under age five and even within that age group, kids under age one and infants aged less than 28 days are the most vulnerable. Vaccination at the right time protects the kids when are the most vulnerable,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“Most mortalities happen under age five and even within that age group, kids under age one and infants aged less than 28 days are the most vulnerable. Vaccination at the right time protects the kids when are the most vulnerable,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}In addition to the introduction of vaccines, initiatives under child welfare schemes to bring down malnutrition has also added to the benefit.
Dattatraya Munde, deputy chief executive officer under women and child welfare, Pune district, said, “In addition to providing necessary nutrition food packets to malnourished kids, we ensured that the supply of food to kids who are not able to attend schools due to the pandemic get their food delivered to their homes.”
“Also, since past two years we have begun programs under which volunteers and govt officials ‘adopt’ a kid which provides financial aid for the nourishment of the child,” said Munde.