Bhayandar: Following the central government’s directives, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation’s (MBMC) health department has rolled up its sleeves to implement Indradhanush-2.0, an intensified version of Mission Rainbow, aimed at building the existing efforts to achieve more than 90 per cent immunisation coverage against a plethora of infectious diseases partially or the unvaccinated children aged between 0-2 two years, and also the pregnant women in the twin-city.
The intensified mission Indradhanush (IMI) 2.0, which will be rolled out from December 2, will focus on 20 civic bodies, including MBMC, among the 25 districts in the state. After an intensive survey, MBMC’s health department claims to have identified a total of 1,785 people, including 1,470 children (in the age bracket of 0-2 years) and 315 pregnant women who need to be vaccinated in various pockets of the twin-city. With an enhanced focus on left-outs, dropouts, resistant families and hard to reach areas, the immunisation activity will be completed in four phases, with a set deadline of March 2020.
Depicting seven colours of the “rainbow”, the initiative is a part of the nation-wide campaign launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to cover children who are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated against seven vaccine-preventable diseases, including diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis-B.
Health department officials have appealed to citizens to cooperate with the visiting health workers. It may be recalled that despite hurdles like illiteracy and a lack of access to information, an undeterred MBMC had been collaborating with clerics, local community and religious leaders to address those fears and misconceptions to alter parental attitudes and promote the vaccination drive in its first phase.
