The Centre has decided to include hepatitis B vaccine in the National Immunisation Programme. The vaccine will be used as a monovalent vaccine in the national programme. Subsequently, depending on the availability and cost, the government will evaluate and shift it as a combination vaccine in future immunisation programmes.

India has also decided to position vaccination as the key strategy to control Japanese Encephalitis that takes a toll of hundreds of children every year. A number of vaccine manufacturers in India both in the public and private sectors are keenly interested in developing new and quality vaccines and make them available for use in the developing world. The global alliance for vaccination and immunisation is of particular interest to India, to know how the GAVI would like to position vaccine manufacturing capabilities in India and other developing countries.

The Centre pointed out that phase-I of GAVI saw rapid expansion of hepatitis B vaccination and injection safety across the globe in 72 countries. Moving into phase-II now, the GAVI will see the merger of the vaccine fund with the alliance, as well as the resources for immunisation services expanding four times over. Phase-II will also witness new funding mechanisms to strengthen and expand delivery of immunisation services to the children. The next phase of ten years aligns well with the time set for the achievement of the millennium development goals by the world community.

India has been able to bring down the polio cases to 52 this year. For injection safety, the government has introduced auto disable syringes for all immunisation programmes in the country. Over 100 million such syringes of different sizes have been supplied to various parts of the country, to ensure injection safety.