Country fails to achieve infection-control
New Delhi: Gaps in immunisation have kept India out of the list of four countries announced by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday as having achieved control of hepatitis-B virus infections.
The WHO said Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Thailand have achieved hepatitis-B control with the prevalence of the disease dropping to less than one per cent among five-year old children, the criteria for control applied by an expert panel.
The panel — a group of medical experts specialising in public health and hepatitis — verified that the four countries had achieved control after reviewing childhood immunisation data that showed consistent 90 per cent coverage with the hepatitis-B vaccine for several years.
“Unwavering determination to reach every child, everywhere, every time with life-saving hepatitis-B vaccines has made this achievement possible,” Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director for WHO’s South East Asia region said in a media statement.
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