E-Paper
Percentage of vaccinated kids in Pune falls from 81% to 58% in four years
The data was interpreted based on the information from either the vaccination card of the child or the way their mother’s recalled the vaccination of the kids
According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) Pune district, the percentage of vaccinated kids in the district has fallen from 81 per cent in 2015-16 to 58.1 per cent in 2019-20 which is a drop of 22.9 per cent.
The data was interpreted based on the information from either the vaccination card of the child or the way their mother’s recalled the vaccination of the kids.
The data also showed that for most of the ailments including polio, BCG, DPT, measles, Hepatitis B and rotavirus, the percentage of kids covered under various vaccination programs has fallen down.
The percentage of kids aged 12-23 months who received vaccination in public health facilities went up by 10 per cent in the same period.
The data for vaccination of kids aged between 12-23 months who were vaccinated based on information from the vaccination card alone was 95.4 per cent in the year 2015-16 went down to 79.2 per cent in the year 2019-20.
Pune district health officer Dr Bhagwan Pawar said, “I have not gone through the survey data yet but I can say that it is not so low. We were supposed to cover at least 8 per cent of the kids every month which we could not this year due to the pandemic. However, we are just behind by 2-3 per cent. We were supposed to vaccinate about 67 per cent of the kids until November end but we have covered only 64 per cent which we are hoping to cover the gap in this month.”
Dr Abhijit More, public health activist and AAP leader in the city said, “I have not seen the report yet but I have heard about this. If it is true then it is very alarming. Vaccination needs to take place at the right time otherwise it is not effective. This is also reflective of the situation that the community outreach program has not worked effectively. The unresolved issues of Asha workers over the years could have caused this. The Auxiliary Nurses Midwives (ANM) working in primary health centres in rural areas are responsible for community awareness and because of most of the work allocated to the Asha workers who are now overburdened, this awareness program must have been hampered. Low vaccination rates among kids means a weaker future generation.”
The survey showed that only 66.2 per cent of the kids aged 12-23 months were vaccinated in the year 2019-20 which was about 86.3 per cent were vaccinated in the year 2015-16.
In the case of Diphtheria, Tetanus & Pertussis (DPT) vaccine, about 92.8 per cent of the kids were vaccinated in the year 2015-16 which came down to 68 per cent in the year 2015-16.
Only 67.7 per cent were vaccinated with first doses of measles in the year 2019-20 which was 98.1 per cent in the year 2015-16.
In the year 2019-20, a total of 79 per cent of the kids aged 12-23 months were vaccinated with hepatitis B vaccine which went down to 61.3 per cent in the year 2019-20.
The survey also showed that more kids got vaccinated in public health facilities in the past four years while in private health facilities the number of kids getting vaccinated went down.