NEWS

National Vaccination/Immunisation Day is observed every year on March 16 to convey the significance of vaccination as well as its role in public health

DETAILS

WHY MARCH 16 – On this day in 1995 that the first dose of Oral Polio vaccine was given in India

IMPORTANCE OF VACCINATION

• Most effective method of preventing highly infectious diseases. According to the World Health Organisation, immunisation is a proven tool for controlling and eliminating life-threatening infectious diseases.
• Extensive immunity due to vaccination is mostly responsible for the world-wide eradication of small pox and the restraint of diseases like Polio, Measles and Tetanus from a large part of the world.
• It is estimated to avert between 2-3 million deaths every year.
• The benefits of immunisation are not limited to improvements in health and life expectancy but also have the social and economic impacts at both the community as well as national level.

2022 THEME –  ‘Vaccines Work for all’

ADDITIONAL INFO

• In 2014, Mission Indradhanush was launched under the Universal Immunization Program to better the health of mothers and children who are deprived of vaccination.
• Mission Indradhanush by the Government of India aims at achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of ending preventable child deaths by 2030.
• The world’s largest COVID-19 vaccination program has been launched in India with an aim of vaccinating the entire population against the COVID-19 pandemic.