Context:
Recently, the Ministry of Health virtually launched Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 4.0.
- India is implementing the largest immunisation programme globally where it annually covers more than three crore pregnant women and 2.6 crore children through the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP).
Relevance:
GS II- Health, Government Policies & Interventions
Dimensions of the Article:
- Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 4.0
- About Mission Indradhanush (MI)
- Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 2.0
- Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 3.0 Scheme
- Universal Immunization Programme
Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 4.0
- It will ensure that Routine Immunization (RI) services reach unvaccinated and partially vaccinated children and pregnant women.
- Children up to two years will be covered in this drive.
- While the pace of routine immunisation has slowed down due to Covid-19 pandemic, IMI 4.0 will immensely contribute in filling the gaps and make lasting gains towards universal immunisation.
- Three rounds of IMI 4.0 will be conducted in 416 districts, including 75 districts identified for Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav across 33 States/UTs.
- These districts have been identified based on vaccination coverage as per the latest National Family Health Survey-5 report, Health Management Information System (HMIS) data and burden of vaccine-preventable diseases.
About Mission Indradhanush (MI)
- Mission Indradhanush (MI) was launched in December 2014 and aims at increasing the full immunization coverage to children to 90%.
- It targets to immunize all children below two years of age either unvaccinated, or are partially vaccinated as well as all pregnant women.
- It includes seven vaccine preventable diseases namely Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Childhood Tuberculosis, Polio, Hepatitis B and Measles.
- In addition to this vaccine for Japanese Encephalitis, Haemophilus influenza type B, inactivated polio vaccine, Rotavirus and Rubella are also being provided in selected states.
Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 2.0
- To boost the routine immunization coverage in the country, Government of India has introduced Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0 to ensure reaching the unreached with all available vaccines and accelerate the coverage of children and pregnant women in the identified districts and blocks from December 2019-March 2020.
- The IMI 2.0 aims to achieve targets of full immunization coverage in 272 districts in 27 States and at block level (652 blocks) in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar among hard-to-reach and tribal populations.
- With the launch of Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0, India has the opportunity to achieve further reductions in deaths among children under five years of age and achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of ending preventable child deaths by 2030.
Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 3.0 Scheme
- Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 3.0 Scheme aims to each the unreached population with all the available vaccines under Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) and thereby accelerate the full immunization and complete immunization coverage of children and pregnant women.
- It will have two rounds this year which will be conducted in 250 pre-identified districts/urban areas across 29 States/UTs.
- Beneficiaries from migration areas and remote areas would be targeted as they may have missed their vaccine doses during the pandemic.
Universal Immunization Programme
- The Immunization Programme in India was introduced in 1978 as ‘Expanded Programme of Immunization (EPI) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
- In 1985, the Programme was modified as ‘Universal Immunization Programme (UIP)’.
- UIP prevents mortality and morbidity in children and pregnant women against 12 vaccine-preventable diseases. But in the past, it was seen that the increase in immunization coverage had slowed down and it increased at the rate of 1% per year between 2009 and 2013.
- To accelerate the coverage, Mission Indradhanush was envisaged and implemented since 2015 to rapidly increase the full immunization coverage to 90%.
Objectives of the Universal Immunization Programme
- Rapidly increasing immunization coverage,
- Improving the quality of services,
- Establishing a reliable cold chain system to the health facility level,
- Introducing a district-wise system for monitoring of performance, and
- Achieving self-sufficiency in vaccine production.
-Source: The Hindu
