The Directorate of Public Health in TN reveals the availability of Hepatitis B & Pentavalent vaccines!!
There were some allegations regarding the availability of Hepatitis B vaccine at various healthcare facilities belonging to Tamil Nadu. Dr. T. Selvavinayagam, DPH, has clarified now that Tamil Nadu has got 5.19 lakh of Hepatitis B vaccines and 4.63 lakhs Pentavalent vaccines as on Friday, 13th of December.
It is worth mentioning that under the Universal Immunisation programme 11 vaccines are provided to pregnant mothers and children. Information is that every year 9.58lakh pregnant women and 8.76lakhs newborns benefit from the programme. As per Dr. T. Selvavinayagam, TN has achieved 99% immunisation coverage. He spoke about how the Hepatitis B vaccine is given to the newborns within 24 hours of birth. At 6weeks, 10 weeks and 14 weeks after the birth, the vaccine is provided as Pentavalent vaccine. From the month of April till the month of November 2024, the Hepatitis vaccine coverage has been 99% that is 5.63lakhs out of total 5.68 lakhs newborns. It is learnt that the Pentavalent vaccine coverage has been 94% that is 5.47lakh out of 5.84 lakh children.
Point to be noted is that more than 9.43lakhs of Hepatitis B vaccines are needed and the health dept has at present 5.19lakhs of doses in stock. In the same manner, atleast 29.2lakh doses of Pentavalent vaccines are required and around 4.63lakhs doses are in stock now.
To provide vaccines, all the empanelled private hospitals in TN have been facilitated through eVIN and uWIN. Instructions have been issued to all the district health officers to provide vaccines free of cost to the required private hospitals and clinics etc.
