2.5 million children receive typhoid vaccine in 10 days

 Kathmandu, Apr.18: About 2.5 million children aged between 15 months to 15 years have received a dose against typhoid within the first 10 days of the nationwide typhoid vaccination campaign.

According to Bharat Bhandari, Immunization Officer at the Child Health and Immunization Section under the Department of Health Services (DoHS), around 30 per cent of the target is near 2.5 million children have already received a vaccine against typhoid so far. The target is to inoculate 6.5 million children in the vaccination campaign, from April 8 to May 1.

Immunization Officer Bhandari replied that Nepal started vaccine against typhoid as routine vaccination because Nepal falls in the high-risk zone against water-borne diseases like typhoid. Being of the low count of infection rate of waterborne diseases like typhoid, malaria, cholera, and hepatitis A in developed countries, a vaccine against typhoid is not included in the routine vaccination.

“From now on, typhoid vaccine will be given along with the second dose of measles to children who will be 15 months,” He said, “Children between 15 months to 15 years are at high risk of typhoid infection.”

According to the report of UNICEF, Nepal is the fourth country supported by Gavi to introduce typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) into its routine immunization program, followed by Pakistan, Liberia and Zimbabwe, with support from Gavi and partners including UNICEF. However, other developing countries are yet to start the typhoid vaccines in routine vaccination.

Sagar Dahal, Chief at the National Immunization centre said that 450 thousand people in Nepal are observed to have been found with typhoid infection. In 2019 alone, 82 thousand 449 people were infected with typhoid. This shows that Nepal is one of the countries to have a high risk of typhoid infection. Therefore, World Health Organization (WHO), also recommend the Nepal vaccine against typhoid as a routine vaccination.