New Delhi: Vaccination has saved billions of lives globally and helped boost immune system to fight infections, said doctors on Monday (April 29), as part of World Immunisation Week. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), immunisation efforts have saved at least 154 million lives over the past 50 years worldwide. Dr Ravindra Gupta, Head of Department, Internal Medicine, C.K. Birla Hospital, Gurugram, told IANS,
On the occasion of World Immunisation Week, we all should take a pledge that everyone should get proper immunisation as needed. Vaccination has saved billions of lives.
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Dr Agam Vora, General Secretary of the Association of Physicians of India added,
Our immune system fights against pathogens and protects us from infectious diseases. Vaccination helps our immune system fight against these infections and protects ageing adults and children from severe infections.
The progress achieved on immunisation suffered a severe setback with some 20 million children missing out on one or more of their vaccines during the recent global Covid-19 pandemic. Further, growing conflicts, economic downturns, and a rise in vaccine hesitancy are some of the threats to efforts to reach these children. As per the WHO,
As a result, the world is seeing sudden outbreaks of diphtheria and measles diseases that, until now, we’d had nearly in hand.
Immunisation eradicated smallpox and almost eliminated polio. Despite childhood immunisation being highly successful, adult immunisation for pneumonia, various kinds of flu viruses, Covid, cervical cancer, and now herpes zoster are lagging.
Dr Agam told IANS that vaccination can be key to protecting ageing adults from serious infections and their complications such as shingles, pneumonia, and influenza. It is because the immune system also undergoes ageing and does not function as well.
Similarly, children below the age of five also need vaccination because their immune system is not fully developed. This makes them susceptible to multiple infections that can interfere with their growth and development, the doctor said.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which in its Season 10 is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Ayushmann Khurrana. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In a world post COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental well-being, self-care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
