Hindustan Times (Ranchi)

Jharkhand rolls up its sleeves to meet MR vaccinatio­n target

- Subhash Mishra htjharkhan­d@hindustant­imes.com ■

DHANBAD: Taking serious note of the tardiness in covering children under the measles-rubella (MR) vaccinatio­n drive in the state, principal secretary (health) Nitin Madan Kulkarni has called an emergency meeting with officials of the World Health Organisati­on (WHO) and the state health department. The meeting will assess the situation and devise ways to meet the vaccinatio­n target; the deadline has long been overshot.

The MR vaccinatio­n campaign was launched in Jharkhand on July 26 this year and, as per the plan, all 24 districts had to immunise the target groups of children within 30 working days. But, till November 30, the state has achieved only 79.4% of the target.

At a review meeting held in October, National Health Mission (NHM) managing director KN Jha gave 15 days’ time to underperfo­rming districts to meet the target, but the results are still not what they should be.

Speaking of this on Friday, a senior official of the state immunisati­on campaign said, “The (health) secretary has called a meeting with officials of the health department and WHO to chalk out a plan for improving the MR vaccinatio­n process.”

The point of concern, said the official, was that four big districts — Dhanbad, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, and Bokaro — had shown below par performanc­e in executing the programme.

However, district health officials in Dhanbad, Ranchi, and Jamshedpur claimed on Friday that they had covered almost 90% of the target groups of children till December 7, and would cover the rest in 10 more days.

“The main problem is the shortage of manpower. We don’t have the required number of auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) to cover such a vast target in the stipulated time,” said a medical officer in charge of a community health centre.

THE MR VACCINATIO­N

CAMPAIGN WAS LAUNCHED IN JHARKHAND ON JULY 26 THIS YEAR .

 ?? HT PHOTO ?? ■ A health worker administer­ing polio vaccine to a child in Dhanbad.
HT PHOTO ■ A health worker administer­ing polio vaccine to a child in Dhanbad.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from India