In the previous two weeks, about 1 lakh children were vaccinated against diphtheria in the Malappuram district in Kerala. The vaccinated kids were either not immunized or only partially immunized before.
According to the data from the authorities that was published on Monday, the number of children below sixteen years who were vaccinated as on July 9 is 93,553. It’s expected that this number will cross the 1 lakh mark-thanks to a special immunisation drive the aim of which is to vaccinate children in eight blocks of Malappuram on Monday. The special program is being implemented in the block panchayats which made the news for the wrong reasons when diphtheria cases were reported from there.
Dr. Ummer Farooq, the district medical officer said that 3 lakh doses of Tetanus Diphtheria vaccine will be reaching Malappuram in the coming days.
But the immunisation program isn’t all that there is. Since the actual number of unimmunised children in the district still remains unclear, a health survey to find out the same is to be conducted in selected panchayat blocks.
In the meantime, two more suspected diphtheria cases were reported in the district on Monday. This makes the total number of such cases in Malappuram 27, that is since June. Of the 27, the disease was confirmed in five, two of whom died last week.
The last survey of the kind was conducted by health authorities in October 2015. As per the survey, the unimmunised or partially immunised children amounted to 2.3 lakh. However, this number has been decreased to some 1.32 lakh in June of 2016.
Image credits: Deccan Chronicle
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