A FOUR-DAY residential regional training programme on routine immunisation for eastern UP was inaugurated at a hotel in the Cantonment area here on Wednesday.
The Unicef, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, and the State Government has organised this four-day workshop in which over 80 district immunisation officers, chief medical officers, additional directors (Health) and senior health officers from Varanasi, Azamgarh, Gorakhpur, Basti, Gonda, Allahabad and Mirzapur are participating.
It was observed that the infant mortality rate was 72 per thousand births in UP, which was much higher than the national average of 60. The State has the highest under-five mortality rate in the country (122.5 deaths per thousand live births) as compared to the all-India average of 94.9. Furthermore, UP contributed 47 lakh un-immunised infants to the pool of susceptible children, the largest in India.
State Additional Director of Universal Immunization Programme, Dr AK Saxena said routine immunisation was very significant to ensure greater success of specific immunisation such as polio.
He said that there was around 35 percent immunisation in several districts across UP and they had planned to raise the immunisation rate to 80 per cent by 2007.
Unicef project officer (Nutrition) Dr Sheela Vir outlined the significance of breast-feeding to infants for six months to develop immune system in kids. She said the infant mortality rate could be reduced by 22 per cent by breastfeeding within one hour of childbirth.
{{/usCountry}}Unicef project officer (Nutrition) Dr Sheela Vir outlined the significance of breast-feeding to infants for six months to develop immune system in kids. She said the infant mortality rate could be reduced by 22 per cent by breastfeeding within one hour of childbirth.
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