Universal Vaccine Coverage: 90% Of Children In Tamil Nadu Are Completely Vaccinated: Survey

Tamil Nadu government's decision of bringing back nurses to the health camps in the state, has increased the vaccine coverage among children

90% children fully vaccinated in Tamil Nadu. (Representative Image)

Chennai: Tamil Nadu government's decision of bringing back nurses to the health camps in the state, has increased the vaccine coverage among children. More than 90 per cent of children are now fully vaccinated for the universal vaccine coverage in Tamil Nadu, reports Times of India.

Bringing back the nurses to health care facilities has boosted the chances of an increase in the vaccination of children. In 2008, after three children died after taking vaccines at a health care facility, the government called for a mandatory doctor check-up for the kids before taking the vaccine.

This in turn has dropped the universal vaccine coverage among children in the state which exposed the children to various other diseases. However, the government in 2014 has decided to bring back the nurses to the health care facilities and provide vaccines to the children. "This is one of the important reasons for the boost in coverage of vaccination. We have also trained our nurses to maintain records," said Tamil Nadu Health Secretary K Radhakrishnan as quoted by Times of India. 

In the last six years, there has been an increase of at least 15 per cent of vaccination coverage among children in the age group of 12-23 months. In 2015-16, the vaccination coverage had recorded up to 76.1 per cent while it has increased to 90.4 per cent in 2015-16, according to the recent publishing of National Family Health Survey (NFHS).