Universal Immunisation Programme

• The basket of vaccines in India’s Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) was static for many years — until the entry of the Pentavalent [which protects against 5 infections — diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenzae Type B (Hib) in one shot], and Japanese Encephalitis vaccines.
• Two new vaccines — measles-rubella and pneumococcal conjugate — are lined up to add into UIP.

About measles- rubella

• More commonly known as German Measles, Congenital Rubella Syndrome, or CRS, is believed to affect about 25,000 children born in India every year.
• Symptoms can include cataracts and deafness, and the disease can also affect the heart and the brain.
• According to a study by University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi, “1-15% of all infants suspected to have intra-uterine infection were found to have laboratory evidence of CRS.
• About 3-10% of suspected CRS cases are ultimately proven to have confirmed CRS.
• CRS accounts for 10-15% of paediatric cataract. 10-50% of children with congenital anomalies have laboratory evidence of CRS. 10-30% of adolescent females and 12-30% of women in the reproductive age-group are susceptible to rubella infection in India.”

About  pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV)?

• PCV is a mix of several bacteria of the pneumococci family, which are known to cause pneumonia — hence ‘conjugate’ in the name. Pneumonia caused by the pneumococcus bacteria is supposed to be the most common.
• Pneumonia and diarrhoea have long been responsible for the most child deaths in India — ballpark estimates say pneumonia is responsible for about 20% of under-5 child mortality in India, of which half are of pneumococcal origin.
• In 2008, the World Health Organisation’s Child Health Epidemiology Reference Group reported that 5 countries in which 44% of the world’s children aged less than 5 years live (India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Nigeria) contribute more than half of all new pneumonia cases annually. It estimated around 43 million pneumonia cases (23% of the global total) and an incidence of 0.37 episodes per child-year for clinical pneumonia in India.
   

By: Vishal