The Covid-19 pandemic and the fake information that has been spread by anti-vaxers against the coronavirus jab has also affected Mission Indradhanush, which aims to cover all children who are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated against a range of other diseases.
Speaking to the press today, Dr S Khonglah, the Additional District and Medical Health Officer of East Khasi Hills, said that, owing to the coronavirus pandemic, parents are hesitant to bring their children for routine vaccination to protect children from 12 life-threatening diseases, like tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, hepatitis B, measles, rubella, Japanese encephalitis and others.
“We are facing dropouts, hesitancy and refusal for routine immunisation,” Dr Khonglah said. “To date, in East Khasi Hills, the proportion of fully immunized children below 12 months is only 66 percent, which poses a serious threat and a possibility for an outbreak.”
Of 19,854 children below 12 months during April 2021 to March 2022, only 10,884 have received the jabs recommended at nine months up to January.
When the Mission Indradhanush was launched, it was found out that 1,314 were refusal cases, some were dropouts who rejected subsequent immunizations and other were cases of hesitancy.
Some parents have confused Mission Indradhanush with the Covid-19 vaccination campaign, the doctor said. “There is no Covid vaccine for the young, except for the 15 and above. Parents should not be confused and they should bring their children for routine vaccination that has been going on even before the coronavirus pandemic.”
A common side effect of vaccinations is fever but some parents, Dr Khonglah said, incorrectly assume that the child is being put in harm’s way and decline to bring their children for subsequent rounds of vaccination.
Pomlum was cited as an example of how serious the problem of vaccine hesitancy is; during an immunisation drive at the local primary health centre, only 20 percent stepped forward for vaccination, with the other 80 percent giving excuses for not vaccinating their children. “Some even locked their doors or fled in fear.”
Such hesitancy or outright refusal to get jabs is costing lives. The medical official informed that there have been suspected deaths due to diphtheria in hard-to-reach areas where the residents were opposed to immunisation despite all the efforts of the Health Department staff.
Mission Indradhanush is not only for newborns or toddlers but also for pregnant women. Pregnant women are now not only given the simple tetanus toxoid vaccine but the tetanus diphtheria one as well. However, East Khasi Hills has experienced several maternal deaths, which are categorised as those during pregnancy up to six weeks after birth.
“From April 2021 to January 2022, we lost 48 mothers, including 16 who got infected by the coronavirus (prior to the Covid vaccination for pregnant women) and the others were due to blood deficiency, complications during home delivery, during transit (after home delivery),” she said while appealing to mothers to come forward without hesitation and complete their two doses of the vaccine and regular checkups.
The second round of the immunisation programme will run from March 7 to 14, with the third round beginning in April. In order to further reassure the wary, Dr Khonglah said that those who arrive at the vaccination centres will not have to be tested for Covid-19 first.
