Nagaland gears up for IMI 5.0 to deal with vaccine hesitancy

August 4, 2023 19 Views No Comment

State targets around 2000 beneficiaries in three-phase immunisation

Morung Express news
Kohima | August 4

Ahead of the launch of Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 5.0 programme to immunise pregnant women and children up to the age of five against life-threatening diseases, a state media sensitisation conference to equip media professionals to counter hesitancy and encourage vaccine uptake was held in Kohima on August 3.

During the interaction with media persons, Dr Imkongtemsu, State Immunisation Officer (SIO) said that the Intensified Mission in the State will not concentrate on a target population unlike the past but will leverage its coverage to all districts.

To be launched on August 7 along with the rest of the country, the Mission in Nagaland has targeted to cover about 2,000 beneficiaries which include children from 0-5 age and pregnant woman.

As such, 178 pregnant women, 1159 children under age 0-2 years and 763 children under 3-5 years will be covered.

This vaccination target has been done through head count of beneficiaries from all the places rather than census population to be more specific with vaccine distribution.

Dr Imkongtemsu said that Nagaland is small comparing with other states and is doing coverage quite well with head-count system with 90% success rate.

A special feature about the upcoming immunisation drive, he informed, was that all project activities are set to go digital with less paperwork.

All registrations, appointment, certificate etc will be digital, which went live this year, he added.

Media critical for vaccine acceptance & uptake
While calling for support, the SIO asserted that the media play a critical role in effectively emphasising the importance of vaccination, which in turn leads to increased community engagement, vaccine acceptance and coverage.

“By raising awareness and dispelling myths, journalists make a contribution to the success of the life saving initiative by giving out right information and encouraging beneficiaries to take advantage of the vaccines and health workers.”

The IMI 5.0 will be undertaken on 6 working days in the next 3 months starting from August to October.

The specific dates are – August 7 to 12 (first phase); September 11 and 16 (second phase) and October 9 and 14 (third phase).

Dr Pangjung, state spokesperson also spoke on risk communication while Anumegha, Risk Communication Lead, JS Delhi spoke on leveraging COVID-19 vaccination in Nagaland to strengthen the rigorous immunisation drive.
The World Health Organisation representative Dr Shiela also gave an overview of IMI 5.0.

The IMI 5.0 will cover up to 12 Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPDs) which include all those who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated who are at increased risk of morbidity and mortality due to VPDs.

The recipients will be registered in the U-WIN application online or on-site and they will be vaccinated in specially planned IMI sessions till last mile service delivery.

With U-WIN registration, one can be vaccinated in any private or public health centres. After registration, it will help the registered person to get reminders on next vaccination dates.

It was informed that 1 mobile phone can register for upto 10 persons.

Vaccines for diseases like measles and rubella, rotavirus, Japanese Encephalitis, pheumococcal conjugate vaccines will be administered.

United Nations Development Programme’s Kingson also gave a presentation on U-WIN Application while Roseline, CO, JSI chaired the programme organised by the Department of Health & Family Welfare, Nagaland in partnership with the MOMENTUM Routine Immunisation Transformation and Equity project.