NEED FOR PROMOTING IMMUNIZATION IN INDIA

Shahid Akhtar, Editor, ETHealthworld spoke to Christopher J Eilas, President, Global Development, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, United States, just so to educate others about the approaches and strategies of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in reducing the global burden of disease and its collaboration with India. He stated that the Gates Foundation takes interests in various health concerns across the globe because they believe in “All lives have equal value” as they are impatient optimists working to reduce inequality. Their mission to achieve their vision is by ensuring more children and young people survive and thrive. They think that when the other generations have access to quality healthcare, that is the moment where we take a step forward to reduce poverty. In developing countries, the foundation aims at enhancing education through innovation; for the foundation it is all about looking at what are the major causes of morbidity and mortality, particularly for women and children

The Foundation aims at saving lives by delivering the latest in science and technology to those with the greatest needs; the accelerated progress to eradicate malaria, reducing HIV infections, delivering life- saving vaccines and eradication polio are all results of the foundation’s vision of a better future. Mr. Eilas also said that almost 20 years ago, there were 11 million children every year who died before their fifth birthday and lately, it is about the half of that number, although he believes that a lot is still unfinished business when it comes to vaccine preventable diseases. The foundation majorly focuses on healthcare issues, including vaccine preventable disease. There are increasingly number of people who are working in strengthening primary healthcare because that is the most cost-effective way to deliver a broad range of services for mother’s and children’s health. The priorities, which tend to be the key reasons that are causing death among women and children are pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and among adults, tuberculosis and HIV and the targeted geographical locations are South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The Gates Foundation has its largest and oldest office in India. The procedure of tackling issue is similar in all countries. Initially, aligning with priorities of the Indian Government is recognised as a bold agenda to increase the coverage of routine immunization while introducing new vaccines. The work is done on a range of issues in India on programs nationally and particularly, with some intense work in the sates of Uttar Pradesh.

Immunization is one of our highest priorities because vaccine preventable diseases are very common and addressing it with immunization is one of the most cost-effective interventions in public health. India’s Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) is one of the largest programmes in the world in terms of quantities of vaccines administered, number of beneficiaries, number of immunization sessions, and geographical extent and diversity of areas covered. The expenditures on immunization services in India in 2012 (baseline) and projected costs for five years (2013-2017) includes the total baseline expenditure was Rs 3,446 crore (1 crore = 10 million). In 2012, the government paid for 90 per cent of the Programme. Allocations of the vaccines increased from Rs 511 crores in 2013 to Rs 3,587 crore in 2017 as new vaccines are assumed to be introduced in the Programme. Immunization is the best opportunity to save lives at very a low cost. In India, quite a large number of children are still affected by vaccine preventable diseases. Therefore, the bold agenda that the Indian Government has for the mission Indradhanush, which was launched in December 2014, strengthens and re-energizes the Immunization programme in India for achieving full immunization coverage for children and pregnant women at a rapid pace. It is an important initiative for reducing maternal and newborn child mortality. If observations are to be believed, the immunization coverage was going up by 1-2% a year, and under Mission Indradhanush, it has gone up 6-7% a year.

In conclusion, by aligning the programs and efforts with the priorities of the Government, the Gates Foundation has seen progress across a broad range of sectors including health, agriculture, financial services, sanitation, as well as some other areas. The work that is being done for the people is to reduce the level of healthcare difficulties they are facing. Every government is trying to provide its citizens with the best healthcare facilities and advanced technologies to reduce the number of casualties caused due to negligent behaviour or irregular medical guidance. Also, governments across the world should be vigilant enough to provide healthcare opportunities that everyone has an access to, so that everyone has a chance to look forward to a healthy future.

SUBMITTED BY-

ARPITA VARMA

STUDENT REPORTER, INBA