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‘Health in India’ report:

Topics Covered: Issues related to health.

‘Health in India’ report:

Published by?

National Statistical Organisation (NSO).

  • The report is based on the 75th round of the National Sample Survey (July 2017-June 2018) on household social consumption related to health.

Key findings in the latest report:

  1. Across the country, only 59.2% of children under five years are fully immunised.
  2. Roughly, two out of five children do not complete their immunisation programme.
  3. About 97% of children across the country received at least one vaccination — mostly BCG and/or the first dose of OPV at birth.
  4. However, only 67% of children are protected against measles.
  5. Only 58% got their polio booster dose, while 54% got their DPT booster dose.
  6. Among States, Manipur (75%), Andhra Pradesh (73.6%) and Mizoram (73.4%) recorded the highest rates of full immunisation.
  7. In Nagaland, only 12% of children received all vaccinations, followed by Puducherry (34%) and Tripura (39.6%).

What is immunisation?

Immunization is the process whereby a person is made immune or resistant to an infectious disease, typically by the administration of a vaccine. Vaccines stimulate the body’s own immune system to protect the person against subsequent infection or disease.

What is full immunisation?

Full immunisation means that a child receives a cocktail of eight vaccine doses in the first year of life.

Need for proposed immunisation:

  • Currently, India accounts for 5 lakh deaths due to vaccine-preventable diseases, which is more than half of the total estimated infants’ deaths annually.
  • In India, diseases such as measles-rubella, diarrhoea, pneumonia and the like cause most of the infant deaths every year.
  • Latest reports by the World Health Organization reveal that a total of 1.5 million deaths could be avoided globally if there is an improvement in the global vaccination coverage.

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link:

  1. About NSSO.
  2. About CSO.
  3. What is full immunisation?
  4. Latest findings in ‘Health in India’ report.
  5. What is a vaccine? How it works?

Mains Link:

What is full immunisation? Discuss the findings of latest ‘Health in India’ report in this regard.

Sources: the Hindu.