Sanofi Pasteur India, the vaccines division of Sanofi, announced the launch of ‘I for Immunisation’, a nation-wide campaign to spread awareness on the importance of immunisation in India. it is a run-up to the world immunisation week, a worldwide collaboration convened by WHO providing an opportunity to raise awareness on immunisation and increasing vaccine coverage, in April.

Today, immunisation saves more than three million lives every year. With appropriate efforts, immunisation could prevent four to five million child deaths a year by 2015. Through the ‘I for Immunisation’ campaign, Sanofi Pasteur aims to sensitise citizens not only on the importance of immunisation but also involve them as ‘agents for change’.

“Many people do not know that a large section of our country does not benefit from immunisation. Only 61 per cent of eligible children have received complete primary immunisation with six basic EPI vaccines. Unfortunately, this is mainly due to poor awareness of vaccine benefits in preventing illness and life threatening vaccine-preventable disease,” informed Dr Nitin Shah, consultant paediatrician, PD Hinduja National Hospital, Mumbai .

Launched in association with Pantaloons Femina Miss India (PFMI) 2012, this campaign will also jointly address the issues related to suboptimal coverage through education activities using on-ground and digital mediums.
 
According to company, citizens can share their ideas by logging on to www.feminamissindia.indiatimes.com or mail the idea to ifori@sanofipasteur.com.