'DEMAND FOR VACCINES WILL SHOOT UP ONCE LOCKDOWN IS LIFTED'

Chhaya Pachauli isa member of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan in Rajasthan.She tells that states must urgently start planning to cover the backlog

How has the lockdown affected immunisation programmes in India?

Every village in India has a fixed day which they celebrate as village health and nutrition day. ASHA and anganwadi workers mobilise children and pregnant women to congregate at the anganwadi centres where they are immunised and offered supplementary medicine.When lockdown was announced,state governments suspended this as a precautionary measure. Later,most states announced that people could avail immunisation services at local healthcare centres.But they forgot that people in rural areas are not proactive about immunisation. Most are also reluctant to step out for fear of infection or lin the absence of public transport. Only some like Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand continued to provide these services at anganwadi centres,perhaps because they have few COVID-19 cases.

How to handle the backlog?

WHO issued guidelines for immunisation during the pandemic long back in March.But no one seems to have taken note of it. Now we have a backlog of two months. States will have to devise robust surveillance systems to identify children who have missed their vaccines and scale up immunisation sessions.They also need to register the children of migrant workers who are now back in their villages. They must ensure smooth supply of vaccines as demand will shoot up once the lockdown is lifted.