Health Ministry's ambitious programme 'Mission Indradhanush', which provides immunisation against seven life threatening diseases, is all set to be re-christened as the addition of four new vaccines into its basket.
'Mission Indradhanush' depicting seven colours of the rainbow provides vaccination to seven vaccine preventable diseases which include diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and Hepatitis B.
Health Minister J P Nadda said that since four new vaccination has been added to the immunisation programme, its name has to be changed.
"Mission Indradhanush has brought change in the lives of people. We have to keep some other name in place of Indradhanush as the vaccinations has gone up from seven to eleven," Nadda said.
"We have added four new vaccinations - rotavirus, measles rubella, inactivated polio vaccine biavalent and Japanese Encephalitis for adults. We have introduced. In that, very important is rotavirus. 10 lakh children get hospitalised every year suffering from diarrhoea and 80,000 lose their lives every year," Nadda told reporters after launching an e-book on Ministry's achievements and initiatives.
Mission Indradhanush aims to cover all children by 2020 who are either unvaccinated, or are partially vaccinated against these vaccine preventable diseases. Mission Indradhanush was launched on December 25 in 2014.
"In one year time, 1.62 crore children have been additionally brought under the ambit of immunisation. Approximately 45 lakh have been totally immunised additionally," Nadda said.
"There are 90 lakh children whose immunisation does not take place, for 20 lakh out of them no immunisation takes place at all while for 70 lakh children it is done partially. This is apart from routine immunisation," Nadda said.
Health Ministry officials had earlier said that between 2009-2013 immunisation coverage has increased from 61 per cent to 65 per cent, indicating only 1 per cent increase in coverage every year.
To accelerate the process of immunisation by covering 5 per cent and more children every year, a "Mission Mode" has been adopted to achieve target of full coverage by 2020, they said.
Nadda said that his Ministry has been working "aggressively" in various sectors including public health, tertiary, secondary healthcare and Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs).
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Nadda said that the draft national health policy is in its final stages and will be taken up in Union Cabinet shortly. He said that the bed strength at AIIMS in New Delhi will be doubled in two years and massive construction work is going on while all finances have been provided for that.
Asked about WHO's recommendation of introducing plain packaging on tobacco products, Nadda said that as of now, the pictorial warning size has been increased by the Ministry.
Additional secretary C K Mishra said that the issue of plain packaging is presently under a lot of legal battles in different countries like the UK.
"With 85 per cent warning we are almost there. We have moved in that direction. Whichever tobacco products which have been manufactured after April 1, it is mandatory for them to have 85 per cent pictorial warning. There are products, which are manufactured before April 1 which are still in the market.
"They have to be phased out. Now newly manufactured products with 85 per cent pictorial warnings have started coming into the markets. The tobacco industry is also on board now," he said.
Nadda said that 58 district hospitals are being upgraded into medical colleges and a sum of Rs 2,000 crore has been ear marked this year for that.
"We want to go into it in a big way. We talk about increasing the number of doctors. If we give medical facilities, then MBBS can be done from there. The result will depend on how the states respond. It will take 2-3 years. But we are ready to give finances," he said.
He said that 11 new AIIMS have been announced and three of them are in working stages while financial support has been given to all. He said that there were some logistical problems including issues related to construction and land acquisition which have been sorted out. "The AIIMS which was opened by Atalji we have made them operative," he said.
Referring to the recent reports where children had fallen sick after consuming the deworming tablets during government's programme, Nadda said that deworming vaccine is harmless and tested but there can be certain side effects.
Asked about corruption, Nadda said,"We have made all systems online and robust so the scope of corruption has minimized as everything is transparent. We have to do this in states and that is why I am telling states that if you want funding or training, the Centre is also prepared for that," he said.
