Guidance
India: ACVIP Guidelines on Immunizations during COVID 19 Pandemic
The WHO declared COVID 19 as a Global Health Emergency in January 2020. It was
declared a “Pandemic” on March 11, 2020. The Government of India declared a
lockdown on March 22, 2020, which was initially for 21 days, ending on April 14,
2020, but was extended up to May 3, 2020. The Ministry of Home Affairs has
released guidelines to be followed during the lockdown on April 15, 2020. Since
March 22, 2020 effective primary, secondary and tertiary care facilities have been
almost paralyzed. The primary focus of public health has been in preparedness and
containment of COVID 19 pandemic in the country and all other preventive health
activities have been relegated to the background. A decreased demand for
vaccination may also occur because of physical distancing requirements or
community reluctance. The likelihood of outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases
(VPDs) such as measles may increase as a result of disruption of immunization
services, even for brief periods. The importance of continued immunization
activities is further emphasized by the observation that during the 2014-2015
Ebola outbreak, the increased number of deaths caused by measles, malaria,
HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis attributable to health system failures, exceeded deaths
from Ebola itself. A modelling study done by the scientists at the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on the impact of suspending routine immunization
sessions to prevent the spread of COVID 19 and further deaths due to COVID 19 in
Africa, has shown that for each COVID 19 death prevented, there would be as
many as 34 - 1274 future deaths due to diseases including measles, yellow fever,
polio, meningitis, pneumonia and diarrhea.
Any flare of VPD will additionally burden the already stressed health care
systems.
The ministry of Home affairs in its guidelines dated April 15, 2020, has
mentioned that Essential Medical Services be maintained during the
lockdown. Clinics and Hospitals must continue providing Essential Medical
services to non-COVID 19 patients.
Authors
Languages
- English
Publication year
2020
Type
Guidance
Categories
- Programme management
Diseases
- COVID-19
Countries
- India
WHO Regions
- South-East Asia Region