Mysuru, Aug.30 (RKB&NNN)- Rotavirus is the leading cause of diarrhoea in children below five years and while nine per cent of children below this age die in the world, in India it is 10 per cent, said MLA S.A. Ramdas.

He was speaking after administering Rotavirus vaccine to infants six weeks, ten weeks and fourteen weeks old at the Primary Health Centre near Kurubarahalli Circle on Chamundi Hill Road here yesterday as part of the Rotavirus immunisation drive throughout the country and said that this scheme fits in with the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to have a Future India with fit children.

Mayor Pushpalatha Jagannath said that under the Yoga Lakshmi project, the Mysuru City Corporation will give a bond of Rs.25,000 to each female child born but it is restricted to two female girl children per family.

The forms for this is available with every area Corporator and people can collect it from them, fill it and give it to the MCC. The girl child will become eligible to collect Rs.25,000 once she attains the age of 18, she added.

Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer K. Jyothi said that children below five years must be vaccinated with various vaccines among which Rotavirus vaccine which is newly-introduced is equally important.

The ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers will administer the vaccines to infants in the age group of six weeks, ten weeks and fourteen weeks by going door-to-door and the vaccine is also available in hospitals and Primary Health Centres free of cost, she said.

78,000 infants die in country

The Rotavirus vaccine is being introduced all over the country for the first time and it has already been introduced in 18 States and now it is being done in Karnataka in the month of August. Every year in India, 37 out of every 1,000 children born are unable to celebrate their fifth birthday, and one of the major reasons for this is deaths due to diarrhoea.

Of the 40 per cent of the children who are affected by diarrhoea, 32.7 lakh children are treated as outpatients, while 8.72 per cent are admitted as in-patients and 78,000 children die annually. In all the PHCs in the taluks of Mysuru District the target is to immunise 36,498 infants with Rotavirus vaccine.

The Rotavirus spreads through fecal-oral route and the main causes are lack of poor hygiene practises and lack of adequate sanitation. However, Rotavirus vaccine along with proper sanitation, hand washing practices, ORS (Oral Rehydration Salts) and zinc supplementation will go a long way in reducing the mortality and morbidity due to diarrhoea in children, said a source at the PHC.  The children are administered two drops of OPV (Oral Polio Vaccine) and 2.5 ml of RVV (Rotavirus Vaccine) every 6, 10 and 14 weeks, said the source.