Rotavirus vaccine which prevents diarrhea launched in Uttar Pradesh

The Rotavirus vaccine that prevents diarrhea in infants and children was launched in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday by state Women, Child, and Family Welfare Minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi.

She told the media that the state government was "positive that the Rotavirus vaccine will play a monumental role in bringing down the infant mortality rate".

The vaccine will be part of the routine immunization programme in the state.

"All newborns must be administered the Rotavirus vaccine in a 3-dose schedule at 6, 10 and 14 weeks along with 5 drops of pentavalent 1, 2 and 3 vaccines," National Immunisation Officer A.P. Chaturvedi said.

With this launch, Uttar Pradesh became the 11th state in the country to introduce the vaccine that ensures complete prevention from Rotavirus.

The vaccine was included in routine immunization programme since 2016 in Odisha and subsequently expanded to Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, and Jharkhand.

"More than 2.1 crore doses of Rotavirus vaccine have been administered to children till May 2018," Director-General Family Welfare Neena Gupta said.

Diarrhea is responsible for about 10 percent of deaths among the under-five in India. Rotavirus is involved in 40 percent of the cases that lead to approximately 78,000 deaths in the country, Director of National Health Mission Pankaj Kumar said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)