Vaccination week to begin on October 7

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 24

The Health Department will start vaccination of pregnant women as well as children up to the age of two years from October 7 under the Mission Indradhanush.

This was decided during a meeting convened by the UT Health-cum-Home Secretary, Anurag Agarwal, here today.

The Mission Indradhanush is a special drive to cover non-vaccinated, partially vaccinated children and pregnant women.

Chandigarh has an evaluated coverage of 87 per cent immunisation in the age-group of 0-2 years. Under the mission, the remaining 13 per cent children would be targeted.

There would be four rounds of seven days each. The first round will begin on October 7 while the last round will be conducted on January 7 next year.

CME on thalassaemiaat PGI today

The Paediatric Haematology-Oncology Unit, APC, PGIMER, along with the Thalassaemic Children Welfare Association, will organise a continuous medical education (CME) programme on Friday. Delegates from North India will attend the event. Nearly one lakh children of beta thalassaemia major die each year in low and middle income countries due to lack of adequate facilities to treat these children. Thalassaemia is one of the commonest inherited blood disorder in India. The management of thalassaemia requires life-long transfusion therapy with chelation. The only curative treatment is stem cell transplant.