40% children not fully vaccinated: NSO report - The Hindu - 09-09-2020

The ‘Health in India’ report by the National Statistical Organisation (NSO) has been published.

The report is based on the 75th round of the National Sample Survey (July 2017-June 2018) on household social consumption related to health.

Important Note:

Full immunisation means that a child receives eight vaccine doses in the first year of life.

Among the states, Manipur (75%), Andhra Pradesh (73.6%) and Mizoram (73.4%) recorded the highest rates of full immunisation.

At the other end of the spectrum lies Nagaland, where only 12% of children received all vaccinations, followed by Puducherry (34%) and Tripura (39.6%).

Key findings:

Across the country, only 59.2% of children under five years are fully immunised.

This contradicts the Centre’s Health Management Information System portal data, which claimed that full immunisation coverage for 2017-18 stood at 86.7%.

It points out that although almost all children in India are vaccinated against tuberculosis, and receive their birth dose of the polio vaccine, two out of five children do not complete their immunisation programme.

Most of these children remain unprotected against measles, and partially protected against a range of other diseases.

About 97% of children across the country received at least one vaccination — mostly BCG and/or the first dose of OPV at birth. This remains steady across income groups and geographies.

However, only 67% of children are protected against measles.