JE vaccination to begin in eastern UP at last

Since,JE vaccination is given once in a lifetime,the children of 1 to 15 years were immunised in these seven districts in 2006 soon after the JE vaccine was imported from China. Because of low routine immunisation coverage in the state,the newborns in these high-risk areas were left out in the later years and this led to the need for another special vaccination drive.

A special drive in the areas was initially planned in the first quarter of 2010 but in April,the state government refused to use the vaccines sent by the Centre saying the stock was “unusable”. While the Centre maintained the stock could be used,state refused to start the drive unless a fresh stock was supplied. Later,it was agreed that the state would be given a fresh stock of 75 lakh doses of vaccines. The state received the fresh stock about two months ago but decided to use it after the disease season ends in November.

“The drive will begin on November 30 and will continue for 15 days covering Gorakhpur,Maharajganj,Kushinagar,Basti,Deoria,Sant Kabir Nagar and Siddharthnagar,” said VS Nigam,Joint Director,Vector-borne and Communicable Diseases wing of the state Health department.

In a bid to examine the exact nature of the immunity provided by the vaccine,a seroprevalence study will jointly be conducted by the UP government,the Pune-based National Institute of Virology and PATH,a non-profit organisation.

“Since,there is presence of enteroviruses in the eastern UP,we also wish to find out if they affect the natural immunity of the children there,” said Pritu Dhalaria of PATH.