Bangladesh to introduce rota virus, HPV vaccines in 2018

Bangladesh plans to add two new vaccines to its routine immunisation programme in 2018, the director general for health services has said.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 23 April 2017, 03:45 PM
Updated : 23 April 2017, 07:04 PM

Prof Abul Kalam Azad said they would introduce rota virus vaccine to prevent a common childhood diarrhoea and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to prevent cervical cancer.

“We have already planned to roll out those vaccines,” he said at a press briefing on Sunday ahead of World Immunisation Week from Apr 24 to Apr 30.

The week is being celebrated across the world to raise awareness of immunisation. This year it is themed on “Vaccines work to save lives”.

“There will be no special vaccination campaign like what we do on National Immunisation Day. Like many other countries, we’ll just campaign and raise public awareness,” the director general said.

“We’ll also make people aware of the need for immunisation in the context of sustainable development of the country,” he said.

"Workers will list the children who dropped out from the routine immunisation through home-to-home visit during the week.”

The Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) organised the press briefing in which Line Director Dr Md Jahangir Alam Sarker, and Programme Manager Dr Md Shamsuzzaman were also present.

Bangladesh’s EPI is globally acclaimed for high vaccination coverage and contribution to the reduction in childhood deaths. It began in 1979 with six vaccines which were gradually increased to 11 in 2015.

“Highest level political commitment is the key to our success,” the director general said, referring to the inauguration of any immunisation day by the president or the prime minister.

“We have also a robust infrastructure to reach out to people and a very dedicated workforce including volunteers,” he said.

He, however, said they found the coverage low in some rich pockets in cities and hard-to-reach areas in remote villages. It is also challenging to reach the floating as well as slum people in urban areas.

“We have taken special programmes to address those challenges,” he said.