The eradication of polyomyelitis became one of the earliest and most prominent successes for Indian medical care | Photo credit: Mustafah Kk
Vaccines are one of the most effective tools in modern medicine and one of the greatest achievements of humanity. The immunization trip of India begged more than two centuries ago when the country’s first smallpox vaccine was administered in Mumbai in 1802, establishing the basis for public preventive medical care. More than a Century Later, Preventive Immunisation Begen in Earnest in 1948 with the adoption of the international tuberculosis campaign, an initiative design to stop the potentialy deadly bacterial erase In -Stimated People A Lunged and Killed People A Lunged and Killed People A Lunged and Killed People A Lunged and Killed people to successful and stagnant people to FECTS 000 1940s.
However, it was not until 1978 that India reached a turning point in its vaccine delivery framework and the ability to offer broader protective medical care at scale. That year, the country launched the left of the Expanded Immunization Program (EPI) renamed the Universal Immunization Program (UIP) that provides free vaccines against 12 preventable vaccine diseases, including tuberculosis, measles and measles.
Today, it stands as one of the world’s largest public health programs, and as one of the world’s world’s national immunization programs, the UIP reaches more than 2.67 million newborns and 2.9 million pregnant women annually.
Polio eradication
In particular, under the auspices of the eradication of UIP polyomyelitis, it became one of the earliest and most prominent successes for Indian medical care. Despite the country’s success in stopping polyomyelitis, the high density of the population, bad sanitation, the prevalence of marginalized and/or inaccessible communities, and the vaccine vaccine remained. These public health challenges led our government to launch Mission Inndondhanush (MI) in December 2014.
My focuses on vaccinating women and children against a large number of diseases, including diphtheria, whore, tetanus, polio and tuberculosis, menititis and pneumonia. The initiative has twelve full phases so far, which covers 554 districts throughout the country, and will continue to provide immunization coverage to those in need.
In 2023-24, India reached full national immunization coverage, a possible milestone through the consistent and extensive efforts of programs such as UIP and Mi.
Together with domestic progress, India also guarantees global progress towards equitable access to vaccines as the largest vaccine producer in the world. Covering 60 percent of the world supply of vaccines, India is remarkable one of the largest low -cost vaccine suppliers in the world.
Now, the integrated innovations of AI such as the Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (EVIN) application will help to modernize even more medical care.
The key to the continuous success of the Indian vaccine lies in our unwavering commitment to technological innovation, community empowerment and collaborative action.
The writer is president of the National Committee of Polioplus of Rotary International India
Posted on April 27, 2025