Indradhanush programme to be renamed

New Delhi: Health Ministry's ambitious programme 'Mission Indradhanush', which provides immunisation against seven life threatening diseases, is all set to be re-christened with the addition of four new vaccines into its basket.

'Mission Indradhanush' depicting seven colours of the rainbow provides vaccination to seven vaccine preventable diseases which include diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and Hepatitis B.

Health Minister J P Nadda said that since four new vaccination has been added to the immunisation programme, its name has to be changed.

"Mission Indradhanush has brought change in the lives of people. We have to keep some other name in place of Indradhanush as the vaccinations has gone up from seven to eleven," Nadda said.

"We have added four new vaccinations - rotavirus, measles rubella, inactivated polio vaccine biavalent and Japanese Encephalitis for adults. We have introduced. In that, very important is rotavirus. 10 lakh children get hospitalised every year suffering from diarrhoea and 80,000 lose their lives every year," Nadda told reporters after launching an e-book on Ministry's achievements and initiatives.

Mission Indradhanush aims to cover all children by 2020 who are either unvaccinated, or are partially vaccinated against these vaccine preventable diseases. Mission Indradhanush was launched on December 25 in 2014.

"In one year time, 1.62 crore children have been additionally brought under the ambit of immunisation.

Approximately 45 lakh have been totally immunised additionally," Nadda said.

"There are 90 lakh children whose immunisation does not take place, for 20 lakh out of them no immunisation takes place at all while for 70 lakh children it is done partially.

This is apart from routine immunisation," Nadda said.

Health Ministry officials had earlier said that between 2009-2013 immunisation coverage has increased from 61 per cent to 65 per cent, indicating only 1 per cent increase in coverage every year.

To accelerate the process of immunisation by covering 5 per cent and more children every year, a "Mission Mode" has been adopted to achieve target of full coverage by 2020, they said.

Nadda said that his Ministry has been working "aggressively" in various sectors including public health, tertiary, secondary healthcare and Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs).