AGARTALA, May 8 (TIWN): In the second phase of Mission Indradhanus, the immunization programme starts from Thursday and it will continue upto May 13 in the West, Dhalai and South Tripura. This phase will cover the pregnant mothers and children with age between 0-2 years, who had failed to get the benefit of the first phase. It is to be mention that the immunization is prevention against seven deadly diseases like Tetanus, Diptheria, polio, Tuberculosis, Whooping cough, measles and Hepatitis-B.

Earlier, the Mission Indradhanush, an immunization programme, was launched in 33 districts of northeastern states to vaccinate children by 2020. The Mission Indradhanush, formulated by the union health and family welfare ministry, intended to expand immunization coverage in India to at least 90 percent children in next five years. These 33 districts are part of the 201 districts in India where the mission was launched on the occasion of World Health Day.

According to the official, the mission would be implemented in eight districts in Assam followed by six in Nagaland, five in Arunachal Pradesh, four each in Manipur and Mizoram, and three each in Tripura and Meghalaya.

Though the Central Government had selected three of the eight districts in Tripura for Mission Indradhanush, the state government would undertake the immunization programme in all the eight districts of the state.  This immunization focused and systematic immunization drive will be through a “catch-up” campaign mode where the aim is to cover all the children who have been left out or missed out for immunization.

Under Mission Indradhanush, four special vaccination campaigns will be conducted between April and July 2015 with intensive planning and monitoring of these campaigns. The learnings from the successful implementation of the polio programme will be applied in planning and implementation of the mission, he noted. While 201 districts will be covered in the first phase, 297 will be targeted for the second phase in the year 2015