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Meghalaya ranks second in immunisation coverage

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NEW DELHI: Despite rising COVID-19 cases, Meghalaya has achieved 90 per cent immunisation coverage, which is the second highest in the country after Telangana, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) on Thursday.
According to the survey, Meghalaya’s Full Immunisation Coverage (FIC) between the years 2015-2016 was just 61.4 per cent, which, in just 4 years and the prevailing COVID-19 situation, has increased to 90 per cent in July 2020.
At that period, the state was settling with the lowest immunisation coverage in the past years. This had led to the increase in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), higher than the national average.
Now, after becoming the second state with the highest coverage, Meghalaya has marked its progress in this field. But the success has come after overcoming several challenges, according to Dr Neelanjan Roy, State Surveillance Medical Officer, WHO — National Polio Surveillance Project (NPSP).
In the hill state, there was lack of medical officers, health supervisors, Auxiliary Nursing Midwifery (ANMs) and ASHAs besides lack of suitable infrastructures for conducting routine immunisation sessions in some remote areas. There were also areas without proper shelter including non-motorable roads.
Various factors also resulted in stock-out of vaccines or logistics that could in turn majorly affect the immunisation coverage.
On the other hand, in some areas of the state, people do not turn up for immunisation of their children on time due to Adverse Event Following Immunisation (AEFI) in the past, the report said.
Lack of awareness and superstitions also make people hesitated towards vaccination. Capacity building gap, AEFI apprehension in community, vaccine acceptance in the community, mobility support for frontline workers, natural calamities et al, are some of the other highly-faced challenges by the state, it added.
There were apprehensions that due to the entire attention on COVID, immunisation programmes in the North East would take a hit.

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