American research has revealed that most of the children in India are not receiving their vaccines on time. This is based on the vaccination of almost 270,000 children in India using data from 2008.
The Free Press Journal reported that researchers from the University of Michigan have found that only 12 percent of children in India receive the measles vaccine by the required age of 9 months. By age of 10 months, a third of the children get the vaccine.
By age five, 75 percent of children in India receive the measles vaccine. Delays in vaccination are said to be a possible factor to the frequency of measles outbreaks in India.
Only 18% of children in India are vaccinated with the recommended three doses of DPT vaccine https://t.co/8T02Amftvr
— News18 (@CNNnews18) June 3, 2016
Indian Vaccine Problem Ironic
Another gap that the researchers found out is in the DPT vaccine. Media reports that only 18 percent of Indian children receive this vaccine in the three recommended doses.
The loopholes in vaccinating children in India happen even as the country is said to be leading producer and exporter of vaccines. Reports also said that India is also the top country where children die below five years old and most of the deaths are from those that vaccine can prevent.
Indian Vaccine Problem 'Systemic'
"This is a systemic problem," said Nijika Shrivastwa, the lead author of the study, as per Indian Express. Shrivastwa said that getting vaccines six months after the recommended age can lead to "dramatic implications" when it comes to vulnerability to disease.
According to India West, Matthew Boulton, senior associate dean for global public health at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health, said that there are 26 million Indian children born in every year. Boulton said that the delays in immunization coupled with the added children annually who need one causes further backlog.
