BENGALURU: Karnataka has seen both an increase and decreases in Japanese encephalitis cases in the past five years with this year recording 21 cases till October.
And as the year is almost coming to an end, the health department has decided to start a special vaccination programme in which it will innoculate 48 lakh children from December 5.
The Union health ministry will be supplying us with the Jenvac vaccine to conduct the drive, said health minister K Sudhakar, on Sunday.
Children between the ages one and 15 will be chosen for the three-week campaign. The vaccines will be administered for school children first, and then in health institutes and Anganwadi centres and among communities.
Furthermore, as part of the Universal Immunization Programme, Bellary, Raichur, Koppal, Vijayapur, Chikkaballapur, Kolar, Mandya, Dharwad, Chitradurga and Davanagere are chosen as endemic districts. And children born here will be given the JE vaccine when they are nine months old and the second dose at 1.5 years of age.
Additional JE campaigns are conducted in Bagalkote, Dakshina Kannada, Gadag, Hassan, Haveri, Kalaburgi, Tumkur, Ramanagara, Udupi and Yadgiri districts. In the campaign, one dose of the JE vaccine will be administered to children aged 1 to 15 years.
JE is said to be the most common cause of encephalitis in the country with 68000 cases reported each year and up to 30 per cent of deaths. Sudhakar said that among those cured, 30% to 50% of people end up with sensory and motor weakness, and other permanent physical and mental disabilities.
