Special vaccination drive from Sep 11 for children, pregnant women in Odisha

Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) [India]: The Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI.50) drive will be launched in Odisha on September 11 to identify and register all children under the age of 5 years and pregnant women who missed their vaccine doses, officials said on Saturday.

According to officials, the IMI 5.0 drive will be carried out in three rounds between September and November 2023, with each round spanning six days.

The first round will be held from September 11–16, 2023, while the second and third round will be held from October 9–14, 2023, and November 6–11, 2023 respectively.

The drive intends to vaccinate 1,04,261 unvaccinated or partly vaccinated children and 19,896 pregnant women in 314 blocks in 30 districts.

Highlighting the objective of the campaign, Dr. Bijaya Kumar Panigrahy, Director of Family Welfare, said, “Odisha is committed to immunize all under-five children who may have been left out or dropped out of vaccination programmes as our objective is to vaccinate every child.”

He further emphasized, “When it comes to children, mothers cannot be ignored. So all pregnant women who have missed their vaccination would also be covered during the campaign.”

According to the NFHS V (2019-21), Odisha has the highest immunization coverage in the country. The full immunization coverage in Odisha has increased from 36.1 per cent (NFHS 1 report, 1992-93) to 90.5 per cent (NFHS 5 Report, 2019-21). This has significantly reduced vaccine-preventable diseases and under-5 mortality in the state.

Addressing to media Dr Sugata Roy, Social & Behaviour Change Specialist, UNICEF, said “Children and pregnant mothers may miss immunization due lack of knowledge on the benefits of vaccines. We would educate households and mobilize the families for uptake of vaccination.”

Since 2015, ten Mission Indradhanush drives have been successfully conducted in the identified districts of Odisha.