Written by: Express News Service
3 min readChandigarhSep 15, 2013 01:26 AM IST
First published on: Sep 15, 2013 at 01:26 AM IST
Scientists,technical experts and health officials from across the country came together on one platform to highlight the progress made by India in battling childhood diseases through new technologies,in a symposium organised at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) on Saturday.
The symposium on rotavirus and pentavalent vaccine innovations was organised by PGIMER in collaboration with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH) and Global Health Strategies (GHS). A number of representatives from the National Institute of Immunology (NII),New Delhi,Christian Medical College (CMC),Vellore and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC),Atlanta attended the event.
Dr Y K Chawla,director,PGIMER said,“While unacceptable,child deaths are not the only impact of these diseases,as children who survive not only suffer but are often hospitalised and miss out on education. These diseases also take an economic toll,pushing poor families into debt or consuming precious resources that could be spent on food or education for their children.”
It is significant to note that according to a study released this week by UNICEF,India has the highest number of deaths of children under the age of five years,with a record 1.4 million deaths in 2012.
However,Dr Ajay Khera,deputy commissioner,Child Health and Immunisation,Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said the government is committed to reducing child deaths. He added,“The Government of India is also strengthening the programme by adding an additional antigen to protect against pneumonia and meningitis. The pentavalent vaccine is now available in nine states. We expect to scale up the use of the vaccine across the country in phases.”
Meanwhile,Dr Rajesh Kumar,head of the department of Public Health,PGIMER appreciated the initiative undertaken by the government of Haryana in introducing the pentavalent vaccine into the government programme,making it available free of cost to all sections of society.
Easily preventable diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhoea are the leading killers of children,together accounting for one third of under-five deaths in India. Although India’s under-five mortality in on the decline,the country still has a long way to go to meet the target of reducing under-five mortality by two-thirds by 2015.
Dr N K Ganguly,advisor,Translational Health Science & Technology Institute (THSTI) and former director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) highlighted that it is very important to address the issue of pneumonia and diarrhoea in India.
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