Mon district gears up to strengthen routine immunisation

Mon division of Health department

DIMAPUR — Having overcome COVID-19 pandemic with creative strategies, Mon division of Health department organised a workshop on May 24 in the conference hall of the chief medical officer’s office to strengthen the routine immunisation (RI).

“If we have the big push and sustain the ownership by all the allied departments and the involvement of the administration similar to the pandemic, the district would surely succeed in immunising many dropouts,” said Dr. Sheila Longkumer, SMO WHO and resource person of the workshop. 

She stated that the technology ‘CoWIN,’ which was the backbone for the COVID-19 vaccination programme, has brought light to the universal immunisation programme (UIP) section to introduce an app very soon under the RI programme to manage and update the vaccine status of the district.

Delivering the keynote, CMO of Mon, Dr. Vizokholu Theyo, thanked the resource person for organising the workshop which, according to her, was a need as the district faces many challenges. She requested the gathering to focus and learn in order to overcome the gaps and to lift up the RI programme in a better way.

Later, the resource person took sessions on learning from COVID-19 vaccination and integration with the RI strengthening; Discussion on status of zero dozer and discussion on corrective measures; Issues and step wise approach in developing RI micro-plan; and Basics of AEFI surveillance strengthening at health facility level.

Dr Vezokholu also took a session on review and discussion of RI performance and briefed on RI scenario of the district, challenges and possible interventions.

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The workshop concluded with a post test and discussion by Dr. Wungyong, DPO (RCH&UIP), and a closing remark by Dr Vizokholu.

The workshop was attended by the deputy CMO, medical officers, community health officers, ANM, block programme officers, district programme officers, Asha coordinators, and district community mobilisers.