NAWANSHAHR:Health Department's Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 4.0 to start from March 7 in SBS Nagar district. The routine immunisation of kids has taken a hit during the COVID-19 years and the launch of the latest Intensified Mission Indradhanush is to bring on track an effort to increase the vaccination coverage of infants and improve the infant mortality rate in the district as part of the Universal Immunisation Programme.
The Civil Surgeon Dr. Davinder Dhanda said that Mission Indradhanush 4.0 in a bid to fill gaps in the routine immunisation coverage of infants and toddlers and pregnant women who may have missed taking the prescribed shots at the stipulated time.
The special drive will cover all unvaccinated children and pregnant women. The main objective of Mission Indradhanush is to be ensured 100% immunization of children and pregnant women so that infant and maternal mortality rate can be reduced.
Dr Dhanda said that this mission would be implemented in three phases starting from March 7 and would be continued for next 3 months. All unvaccinated children and pregnant women would be immunised for 7 consecutive days every month.
He further said that the first phase would be start from March 7 which would be continued till March 13, while the second phase would be implemented from April 4 which would be continued till April 10. The third round will take place in the first week of May.
Indradhanush envisions full immunisation of children under two years of age and pregnant women with vaccines against preventable diseases including diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, severe form of childhood tuberculosis, hepatitis, meningitis and pneumonia and other vaccines in the district and newer vaccines such as rotavirus vaccine, IPV, pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) and measles-rubella (MR) vaccine.
The Civil Surgeon also appealed to the people of the district to avail maximum benefits of this campaign to save the children from deadly diseases.