STAFF CORRESPONDENT

With immunisation coverage hovering between 80 and 84 percent for over a decade, health experts yesterday urged the government to address manpower shortages and revise the urban immunisation plan to reach the 95 percent target.

They made the call as the country prepares to launch the Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine (TCV) campaign on October 12, aiming to immunise 4.9 crore children aged between nine months and 15 years to reduce deaths from the disease.

Health authorities have urged all eligible children to be registered and vaccinated, stressing that the vaccine is safe, effective, and free of cost.

Online registration for the vaccine began on August 1, and around 1.68 crore children had been registered using their birth certificates as of Wednesday. Many others without birth certificates were registered manually. Registration will remain open throughout the campaign.

The campaign will be conducted in all educational institutions during the first 10 working days between October 12 and 31, followed by the next eight working days at both temporary and permanent vaccination centres until November 13.

At a press conference organised by Unicef Bangladesh and the Shastho Shurokkha Foundation, in association with the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), at Jatiya Press Club, experts called for urgent measures to raise immunisation coverage.

Prof Nizam Uddin Ahmed, executive director of Shastho Shurokkha Foundation, said the EPI has helped reduce under-five mortality by 81.5 percent, preventing around 94,000 child deaths annually.

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