Chief Secretary B B Vyas on Friday chaired a meeting of the State Steering Committee for Immunization to review the status of implementation of Intensified Mission Indradhanush to ensure that no child suffers from any vaccine-preventable disease.Principal Secretary, Health, IGP, Jammu, DG Youth Services & Sports, Mission Director ICDS, J&K, Director School Education, Jammu, Director Family Welfare, MCH & Immunization, J&K, Mission Director NHM, J&K, Director Health Services, Jammu, Surveillance Medical Officer, WHO and other senior officers attended the meeting.Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) was launched by Prime Minister in October-2017 from Gujarat. The purpose of this programme is to reach each and every child under two years of age and all those pregnant women who have been left uncovered under the routine immunisation programme.The special drive focuses on improving immunization coverage in select districts and cities to ensure full immunization to more than 90% by December 2018.
In J&K, Jammu district was identified to conduct this special drive and till date over 9400 children have been vaccinated in addition to over 820 pregnant ladies immunized against Tetanus. First round of IMI was started here in October and lasted for one week. Subsequent rounds, each lasting one week were conducted from 7th of November-2017, 7th of December and 7th of January-2018.Chief Secretary stressed on sustained effort to ensure that targets are met and all children between 0-2 age group are immunized. He said focus should also be on covering children of floating population including nomads, labourers and employees. He stressed on launching vigorous and wider publicity campaigns regarding the mission in schools, sports events and through radio, doordarshan and print media.Chief Secretary called upon DCs to deepen the efforts of immunization in their districts in order to reduce maternal and child mortality further by inter-departmental coordination, action-based review mechanism and intensified monitoring.