Bhutan has come a long way since the inception of the Immunisation Programme achieving 97 per cent of vaccination coverage last year. The programme started with only 10 per cent of coverage in 1979. The annual World Immunisation Week is a global health campaign that takes place in the last week of April and aims to highlight the collective action needed and to promote the use of vaccines. As the week comes to an end today, we look at how far the nation has come.
This time, every year, the global immunisation community comes together to celebrate the lifesaving power of vaccines.
Like any other country, Bhutan also marked the week. This year’s theme is “The Big Catch Up” emphasising the efforts required to raise awareness of the urgent need to find and vaccinate children who missed vaccines due to the global pandemic.
However, the programme officer of Public Health Tashi Dawa says that the immunisation programme in Bhutan was not affected much since there is a good system in place.
“Now most of the diseases are no longer a public health concern or a public threat in the country. Although, we are getting a few cases of rubella and measles, maybe one or two. At the most, we receive five or six cases in a year.”
However, the Ministry aims to bring the number to zero in the future.
“However, to achieve this and not have a single case of these diseases, we need to have high coverage of vaccination in the country. For that, I request all our parents, caregivers and educated people to help the Ministry of Health to vaccinate all the children.”
The immunisation programme in Bhutan started in 1979 with only four vaccines containing six antigens: BCG for tuberculosis, and DTP to prevent diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. It also included vaccines for measles and OPV for poliovirus.
Currently, the national immunisation programme provides seven vaccines containing eleven antigens. The human papillomavirus vaccine or HPV, influenza and COVID-19 vaccine are excluded.
Bhutan received polio-free certification in 2014 and maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination certification in 2016.
Likewise, Bhutan was certified for measles elimination in 2017 and received rubella-controlled certification the following year.
Bhutan also became the first low-income country in the world to introduce the HPV vaccine for girls aged 12 to 18 in 2010 and for boys aged 12 to 15 in 2020.
While the week ends today, efforts will continue to furtther improve the country’s immunisation coverage.
Devika Pradhan
