Vaccines to be made available on Wednesdays at wellness centres in TN
Vaccines are being provided to children and pregnant women against the 12 Vaccine Preventable Diseases. Annually, around 9.57 lakh pregnant women and 8.77 lakh children and infants are being covered under this programme.
Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine
CHENNAI: The Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine has directed all Health and Wellness Centres to ensure the availability of all vaccines on Wednesdays, similar to the arrangement at Primary Health Centres, to boost immunisation services in urban areas.
Under the Universal Immunization Programme 11, vaccines are being provided to children and pregnant women against the 12 Vaccine Preventable Diseases. Annually, around 9.57 lakh pregnant women and 8.77 lakh children and infants are being covered under this programme.
Currently, 2,712 Cold Chain Points (CCPs) are functioning in the State to store the vaccines, including one State Vaccine Store, 10 regional Vaccine Stores, 46 District Vaccine Stores and 2,655 CCPs at primary health centres, government hospitals, and health and wellness centres.
Immunisation services are being provided to the beneficiaries through institutions and outreach services.
The Health and Wellness Centres function well in providing 12 comprehensive packages of services, such as preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative, and palliative care related to several medical conditions, and emergency and trauma services are provided to the public.
Among the 12 comprehensive packages, immunisation is one of the services offered at the Health and Wellness Centre.
Of the 708 Urban Health and Wellness Centres approved in various municipalities and corporations in the State, 500 are functioning, and 208 are yet to be made functional. As there is a possibility of the omission of children for vaccination in urban areas due to frequent migration, urban slums, etc., UHWCs can bridge the gap.
The instructions from DPH stated that a shortfall of routine immunisation doses had been observed against the targeted number.
Hence, to achieve 100 per cent coverage of Routine Immunisation and to control vaccine-preventable diseases in the State, all district health officers are instructed to include 708 HWCs in the routine immunisation micro plan.
The medical officers and health workers should collect the vaccines from the concerned urban PHC and take necessary steps to train all vaccinators and ensure vaccine availability in 500 functional HWCs every Wednesday.