World Immunisation Week: Parents need to be educated about importance of vaccinations, says Dr Raghuram

In what could be seen as a shocking reality, despite various health and awareness programmes, an estimated 21.8 million infants worldwide are still missing out on basic vaccines like diphtheria, hepatitis B, measles, mumps and tetanus, says the World Health Organisation (WHO). India is one of the countries where immunisation coverage is less than 80 percent.

Each year, last week of April is marked as the 'World Immunisation Week'. It aims to raise awareness among people as to how immunisation can save many lives. The theme of this year is 'Close the immunisation gap'. Immunisation is important as it helps to prevent up to 3 million deaths globally.

In an exclusive interview with Shruti Saxena of Zee News Corp, Dr Raghuram Mallaiah, the Director Neonatology, Fortis La Femme, speaks about why immunisation is important and the need to intensify efforts to protect children with lifesaving vaccines.

Why is immunisation important? Does it provide complete protection?

Immunisation is the best method of ensuring a safe future for your child. Unlike common perception immunisation does not protect you against a disease, but provides specific protection against a particular bug—if a child receives the pneumococcal vaccine the child gets specific protection against a bug known as pneumococcus and not against all pneumonia’s (pneumonia can be caused by other bugs as well).

The degree of protection varies from vaccine to vaccine, but generally they do provide good protection against the diseases caused by the bugs against which they are vaccinated. Nothing in this world is 100 percent, but vaccines do provide immunity up to 80–98 percent, depending upon the vaccine. When vaccines are used effectively they also help in eradicating the disease as seen in the case of smallpox and to a certain degree with polio.

What is the optimum immunisation schedule for kids?

In India most hospitals follow the Indian Academy Of Paediatrics immunisation schedule. However some hospitals/doctors modify the schedule to suit their patients but the vaccinations more or less remain the same.

Are mothers-to-be more at the risk of life-threatening infections? Which vaccines should they take at the time of pregnancy and after delivery?

Not necessarily, but all pregnant woman should receive the tetanus vaccine. Other than this usually no vaccines are given during pregnancy. Definitely, no live vaccine should be used once the woman is pregnant. It is always wise for the mother to be vaccinated up to date, ideally before she conceives and this is not so much for mothers protection but to prevent the fetus from getting affected during the pregnancy

What is the biggest impediment in achieving universal immunisation against deadly diseases?

Compliance is the biggest impediment in achieving universal immunisation. If India needs to head towards universal immunisation then patient education would be of utmost importance. Parents have to be educated about the importance of vaccinations and the huge benefits to the child. Vaccinations should be made more easily available in the rural areas, where currently penetration of immunisation is very low.

Do you think the recently launched 'Mission Indradhanush' by Government of India will prove to be effective?

'Mission Indradhanush' is mainly aimed at preventing vaccine preventable diseases namely Diphtheria, Whooping cough, Tetanus, Polio, Tuberculosis, Measles and Hepatitis B by 2020. This seems a reasonable target and if they follow in the pulse polio programme there is no reason for this not be successful. It is extremely important to use mass communication media to encourage and inform people regarding vaccination. Success of this project would be depend on the determination and commitment of the government.

Are there any new viruses that pose a risk to mankind?

There are a number of viruses which are causing problems to humans. Although they are not necessarily new viruses, some of them are variants of existing ones, such as Swine flu and Bird flu, which have been causing epidemics across the globe and have posed a significant threat to mankind.