Madhya Pradesh: Free vaccination for ‘Japanese Encephalitis’ starts in four district including Bhopal from Tuesday

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) February 27 (ANI): Madhya Pradesh government has started a free vaccination campaign for ‘Japanese Encephalitis’ disease for the children of age 1 to 15 years old in four districts, including the capital Bhopal from Tuesday.

The inoculation will be done at government hospitals and some selected private hospitals in the city. Deputy Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and Health Minister Rajendra Shukla kick started the vaccination campaign in the city.

“Japanese Encephalitis is a serious disease and it can even lead to death. It is caused by mosquito bites and its treatment is vaccination. The inoculation for the same has started in four districts Bhopal, Indore, Narmadapuram and Sagar from today. Children from age 1 to 15 years old will be inoculated. Currently, it has been started in four districts and later according to the guidelines of the Government of India and survey of the department, it will be done in the remaining parts of the state,” Shukla said.

Meanwhile, Bhopal CMHO (Chief Medical and Health Officer) Prabhakar Tiwari has said that the disease is extremely fatal and it has a 30 per cent fatality rate.

“Vaccination for Japanese Encephalitis has been started in Bhopal and three other districts Indore, Narmadapuram and Sagar from today. It is basically a virus disease and is extremely fatal. The fatality rate is about 30 percent and even among those who survive, 30 to 50% people have residual sequelae in which some people get tremors, some people’s growth stops and people keep suffering throughout his life,” Tiwari said.

“This vaccine is a completely safe vaccine. It is currently being administered to children aged between 1 year to 15 years and after this phase it will be included in the routine vaccination. Two doses of it will be inoculated to children between 9 months to 16 months and will be universally available”, the CMHO said.

“Currently, the vaccine will be administered in 20 hospitals, which include some private and government hospitals where it will be administered daily. This vaccine is completely free whether in a private or government hospital. I request everyone to vaccinate their children to avoid this deadly disease,” he added.

Earlier, CMHO Tiwari said that this disease generally occurred in children under 16 years of age and mortality rate remained high. It was estimated that about nine lakh children would be inoculated during this vaccination campaign.