Kohima, 3 April (MTNews): A State Task Force Meeting on Immunization was held on the topic of “Routine Immunization cum Measles and Rubella Elimination” under the chairmanship of the Secretary, Health & Family Welfare Department, Asangla Imti NCS at IDSP Hall, DoHFW at 3 April.
State Immunization Officer (SIO) presented the status of the routine immunization of the state, percentage of zero dose children, dropout rates and the reasons for dropouts; objectives for Measles and Rubella (MR) elimination campaign and the district wise targets for MR elimination.
Mission Director, NHM highlighted the operational challenges to achieve immunization coverage and requested support from the allied departments for achieving the goal of no child left behind for vaccination from vaccine preventable diseases.
Secretary, Health & Family Welfare Asangla Imti commented on the need of a dedicated cell to monitor convergence between the allied departments to assess, review and evaluate for course correction.
On this note, a dedicated cell under MD NHM for monthly review to identify gaps was suggested. SIO, representatives from development partners and HMIS monitoring team were made to be part of this cell along with other relevant stakeholders.
Convergence between allied departments of Social Welfare, NSRLM, School Education and Department of Health and Family Welfare was suggested for the mobilization of caregivers to ensure children take up the due doses of the Routine Immunization vaccines which will push towards support for the MR Elimination campaign. For this, it was suggested that letters of convergence from respective nodal departments be shared with the District/Block/Village units.
Support from School Education towards Td injections for 10 years and 16 years age groups as part of convergence with the Health Department was also discussed. The meeting discussed that Anganwadi centres will be used as immunization centres at least once a month as part of convergence and VHND formats to be used for monitoring by the District Task Force for Immunization (DTFI).