2 min readNew DelhiMar 23, 2011 12:44 AM IST
First published on: Mar 23, 2011 at 12:44 AM IST
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumars leadership has won him yet another admirer,philanthropist Melinda Gates. This time,it is Kumars achievements in increasing the immunisation rate in Bihar that has come for praise.
In 2005,when Nitish Kumar became the chief minister of Bihar,the burden of disease in the state was massive. It also had a low immunisation rate,33 per cent compared to the global average of 70 per cent. By 2010,however,Bihars rate had risen to 66 per cent, said Melinda.
Melinda is wife of Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Global healthcare is one of the Foundations thrust areas. In February,Bill Gates had praised the CMs ability to control polio in Bihar.
She was speaking at TedxChange,a seminar on innovations that can help improve maternal and child health, in Delhi on Tuesday. An initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,TedxChange was organised by the Delhi chapter,TedxDelhi.
Melinda pointed out how Kumar had worked his magic using a pair of wheels. Earlier,nurses would have to pick vaccines from the health centres,take them to villages and then return to their health centres to file a report, said Melinda. Kumar introduced couriers on cycles men who would carry the vaccines to the nurses,giving them more time to vaccinate more children. Such a model might now be adopted in countries like Guatemala and Zambia, she said.
Coming soon,Pentavalent vaccine
The long-pending proposal to introduce Pentavalent vaccine in the National Immunisation Programme may soon take off.
During a discussion with Bill Gates on the Pentavalent vaccine on Tuesday,Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad is learnt to have the chairman that the Ministry would consider introducing the 5-in-1 vaccine.
Pentavalent is a single shot vaccine that has antigens of five diseases diphtheria,pertussis,tetanus,hepatitis B and HIB. The vaccine will be introduced on pilot basis in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Share
