ITANAGAR, Dec 18: Only 78% of children in Arunachal Pradesh are covered under the Universal Immunization Programme against the national average of 87%, says a survey.
The low vaccination coverage can be attributed to mixed belief systems and lack of awareness among people, a senior health official said.
According to a coverage evaluation survey carried out in 13 districts of the state in 2018, Longding and Upper Subansiri districts had less than 40 per cent coverage, the NHM’s State Immunization Officer Dr D Padung said.
Six districts had immunization coverage of over 70% and the remaining five districts had more than 60% coverage.
Deputy Director (IEC) O Thamphang said that the target was to attain more than 90% coverage by 2020.
Medical Officer (Immunization) Dr Tage Taka said that the states target to vaccinate at least 90% of the children who were yet to be vaccinated had become ineffective due to lack of awareness and apprehension of adverse effect following immunization among the parents. PTI
