Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Jan 29 - The State health department is aiming to cover around 15 lakh individuals in the age group of 15-65 years in Goalpara, South Salmara and Kokrajhar districts as part of the ongoing adult vaccination drive to prevent spread of Japanese encephalitis (JE), a source in the department said.
The drive was formally launched on January 20 in Goalpara with vaccination at the block PHC level.
Village-level vaccination began from January 27. “From January 27, our staff have been organising awareness-cum-vaccination sessions in various villages of the district. We are aiming to cover 200-300 people in one session and will cover the entire district within 22-25 days,” the source said.
In Goalpara district, the department is aiming to cover around seven lakh people under the vaccination drive.
For the awareness and vaccination sessions, the health department has also formulated a special micro action plan along with all logistic arrangements. In each of these three districts, the department is aiming to conduct more than 156 such sessions to cover all the population of the targeted age group.
The source also pointed out that this year, the department will cover only three districts under the vaccination drive due to some technical reasons. “After vaccination it takes three months for immunity to develop in the human body. So technically it is not possible to cover the whole State within a year,” the source added.
It may be mentioned that the department is using the Jenvac vaccine during the drive. Jenvac is a locally produced JE vaccine available in India. The source also informed that whether it is locally manufactured or imported from a foreign country, scarcity of JE vaccine always persists in the market due to various technical reasons. So the State government is planning to carry out the vaccination drive in a phased manner.
Meanwhile, the source informed that officials concerned have met with officials of the Airports Authority of India at the LGBI Airport regarding spread of the Corona virus. “So far we have not seen any threat from the virus in Assam. But we are ready to tackle any situation,” the source added.
Source: The Assam Tribune, Guwahati, Thursday, January 30, 2020