The office hopes that the special program will help to boost overall immunization coverage of the VDCs and slum settlements. The move of DPHO comes following instruction of Child Health Division (CHD), which has declared the month of Baishak (mid-April to mid-May) as special immunization months. The CHD has issued directives to all DPHO across the country to organize special immunization programs in their respective districts.[break]
´We have identified 12 VDCs and slum settlements, which have low vaccination coverage,´ said Sri Krishna Bhatta, chief of Kathmandu DPHO, adding, ´Special immunization program will be organized in those areas.´ He said that the DPHO will organize interaction programs with the local people at the grassroots level to make people more aware about the importance of vaccine. ´The special program will incorporate all those who have not being showing much interest to immunization,´ Bhatta added.
The Kathmandu DPHO also informed that the office has also planned to reward health officials, including female community health volunteers (FCHVs), who have contributed to improve the health sector. The DPHO has also planned to boost supervision and monitoring of the health programs in the districts.
The CHD has designed the program to incorporate all the children who have been missing regular vaccines. The National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) shows that only 87 percent of children across the country have been receiving all vaccines and three percent do not receive even single dose of vaccine. The CHD said that apart from the several districts of Tarai region, the coverage rate is poor in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and in Lalitpur.
Bhatta, however, claims the district has over 90 percent vaccination coverage. ´We do not have problems to meet the administrative target,´ he said adding, ´Despite that a lot of children in the district have missed the immunization.´ Every day thousands of people enter and exit the capital. The office does not have reliable data on the population living in the capital. Even the MoHP and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) is unaware about the exact population of the capital.
The 2011 census shows that only 2.6 million people live in the capital, but several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) claim that the number is about four million.
Related story
Measles and Rubella Immunization campaign: All children of 413...
