Vaccination inaccessible to ‘17 pc children’
Seventeen percent of the total child population in the country do not have access to basic vaccination due to lack of road transport, said a senior health official.
Speaking at a function in the Capital on Tuesday, Director of Child Health Division, Dr. Shyam Raj Uprety, said children, especially from the central and western developmental regions are deprived of basic immunization services due to lack of road to reach the rural areas.
Only 83 percent of the total child population gets full doze of eight different government-provided vaccines, including B.C.G, D.P.T, polio and measles, said Uprety.
According to MoH statistics, 800,000 children are born every year and 150,000 of them do not have access to any vaccine.
The statistics show that in 1000 live births 61 children die before they reach five years of age. The government has expressed its commitment to bring down this figure to 54 per 1000 live births by 2015 to meet the Millennium Development Goals.
GAVI to aid govt
KATHMANDU: Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) has announced to assist Nepal for its progress in reducing child mortality age bellow five years. According to Dr. Uprety, Nepal along with 71 other developing countries, will get financial assistance for vaccination and immunization during the fourth GAVI partners' meeting on November 18-20 in Hanoi, Vietnam. Bill Gates is a major promoter of GAVI.
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