Drive to immunise kids against diphtheria begins in Varanasi

Varanasi: Under World Immunisation Week, vaccination of children who missed vaccinations during the headcount survey began in Varanasi on Thursday. The programme will be continue till May 10.

Chief medical officer Dr Sandeep Chaudhary said the programme was being held under the aegis of director general of family welfare, UP. A district-level interdepartmental online meeting was held chaired by chief development officer, Himanshu Nagpal, on Wednesday and the latter instructed all departments to cooperate.

The CMO said special immunisation sessions would be organised to vaccinate children who had missed it. Additionally, in view of increasing cases of diphtheria, a school-based tetanus and TD vaccination campaign (for adolescents) will be conducted in all blocks/urban areas of the district to cover children aged 10 to 16 years with the diphtheria-containing vaccine (TD).

He said transmission of diphtheria was more likely between Jul and Dec, so the campaign was being run in advance to vaccinate children. Camps will be organised by ANMs at community health centres, primary health centres and Ayushman Arogya Mandirs in schools/madrassas/anganwadi centres in the area to vaccinate children aged 10 to 16 years. 10-year-olds will get the TD-10 vaccine, and children aged 16 years will be administered TD-16 vaccine. Except on Wednesdays and Saturdays, ANMs of urban/rural sub-centres will visit all schools in their area (up to high school) to identify children who missed vaccinations and cover them.

District immunisation officer and ACMO, Dr A K Maurya, explained diphtheria was infectious caused by bacterium corynebacterium diphtheriae, which typically affected throat and tonsils.

Children not vaccinated against diphtheria were more likely to contract the disease, which forms a membrane in throat, obstructing breathing.