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Nepali Gov't Provides Vaccines to Children to Reduce Child Mortality

Posted on: Monday, 6 March 2006, 09:01 CST

Nepali gov't provides vaccines to children to reduce child mortality

KATHMANDU, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The Nepali government has been providing different vaccines to the children below one year old to reduce child mortality on the country, a government official said here Monday.

"The government, through its National Immunization Program (NIP) , has been providing different vaccines to protect them from different communicable disease in the country," Shyam Raj Upreti, Director of Child Health Division at Ministry of Health and Population, told reporters.

The Second Long-term Health Plan (1997-2017) of the country targets to reduce the infant mortality rate to 34 per every 1,000 live birth and reduce mortality of children below five years to 54 per 1,000 live births by 2007, Upreti said.

According to the latest Demographic Health Servery of Nepal, infant mortality was 64 per 1,000 live births and in children below five years old it was 91 per 1,000 children.

The vaccines being provided under the regular program are BCG, DPT, Polio, Hepatitis-B, measles and TT. "All the vaccines are being provided compulsorily to children below one year but the TT vaccine is being given to pregnant woman only," Upreti said.

The NIP has been focusing on increasing the existing coverage of 80 percent of these compulsory vaccines in every district and villages to 90 percent by 2010, eliminate polio from the country by 2008 and reduce the mortality rate due to measles by 90 percent by 2010, he said.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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