Bara, December 10:

The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has recently expanded School Immunisation Programme (SIP) to 16 districts for students of classes 1 to 3 to boost children’s immune system against Tetanus. The programme will last till December 28. Teachers, parents and local authorities were mobilised for the SIP’s Tetanus Toxoid (TT) vaccination that aims to cover 1.6 million children in 24 districts. The SIP, supported by the UNICEF also targets the non-school going children aged between 6-8 years. The SIP started from November 24 this year.

Minduka High School at Nalang, Dhading enjoyed the SIP twice and 86 students from grade 1, 2 and 3 of the school received Tetanus Toxoid (TT) vaccine. Binod Kumar Khadka, immunisation supervisor of Dhading, said, the SIP was effective than door to door vaccination programme as it covered more than 80 per cent of the target population. Khadka added that each child’s vaccination card is kept safely with the school for records.

Last year, students in classes 1,2 and 3 were given the first dose of the TT vaccine whereas the students of class 1, 2 and 3 were given first, second and third dose of TT vaccine this year. The SIP targets a total of 56,164 children of 592 schools in 50 VDC in Dhading.

Bara district introduced the SIP for the first time targeting approximately 100,000 children from 456 schools of 98 VDCs and a municipality.

Parshu Ram Shrestha, District Health Officer, Bara, said the TT vaccination protects especially the women from maternal and neonatal Tetanus and the infants, who acquire the disease in first month of one’s life.

“We never imagined so many children would turn up on the first day,” said Sripati Tiwari, a vaccinator in Bara. “The school has 900 students in its three classes to receive the vaccine. Non-school going children also turned up in the first day.”

Bishnu Paudel, assistant project officer at UNICEF said, “When a child is six weeks old, the child needs Diphtheria, Pertussis and Tetanus Vaccine (DPT) to be given for three times at an interval of one month. As the child grows, the effectiveness of TT vaccines given to them during the infant stage goes off.” The SIP, started in 2005 from eight districts, is expected to reach 75 districts in the country within few years, Paudel said.