Nagaland’s health programmes a bit unwell

Our Correspondent
Kohima, Oct. 4 (EMN): Saying that Nagaland was lagging in ‘all parameters’ related to health immunization programmes, Additional Director of Health and Family Welfare Dr. Tia Jamir has urged stakeholders including the media to play a role in spreading awareness about health programmes.
Speaking at the one-day workshop on the subject “Intensified Mission Indradhanush” for the media / stakeholders in Kohima town on October 4, the addl. director Jamir observed that the state, when compared to other states, was ‘lagging far behind in health related immunization programmes due to lack of awareness.’
It may be mentioned that all the eleven districts in the state have been placed in the ‘non-performing districts’ category of the Intensified Mission Indradhanush programme which was launched in 2015. This was informed by Dr. Jamir during his delivering the keynote address at the event.
Calling the importance of immunization ‘very necessary and essential,’ Jamir appealed to nongovernmental organisations and churches to come forward and work hand-in-hand with the department in the effort to ‘fulfil the aims and objectives’ set for 2018 year-end which is to achieve 90% of the target.
“The department alone cannot fulfil the aims and objectives laid down. It is our desire to achieve the 90% target by December 2018,” Dr. Jamir said. He added that “the main objective of immunization is to find out where we can reach out to the people in times of help.”
During the technical session, power-point presentations showing an overview of the immunization status in respect of Nagaland state and Intensified Mission Indradhanush, besides objectives and strategies, were presented by Dr. Pairson and Dr. Sheila. Dr. Longri from the Unicef also gave a presentation about the role of different stakeholders in regard to the Intensified Mission Indradhanush.
The workshop was organised by the National Health Mission, Nagaland, and supported by the Unicef.