Vaccine centre will open soon, says health min

Chennai: Work on the Centre’s Integrated Vaccine Complex — a nodal centre for manufacture of and research on vaccines — in Chengalpet is complete and will be opened soon, state health minister C Vijaya Baskar said on Thursday.

The complex will supply vaccines at affordable prices for the Centre’s Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) and is likely meet three-fourths of the country’s requirements. The vaccine centre will produce over 500 million doses of vaccines against diseases such as tuberculosis, polio and whooping cough, the minister said after inaugurating freezers and coolers for the state vaccine store at the directorate of public health here ahead of pulse polio campaign.

The pulse polio vaccination for children aged below five will be carried out on Sunday and March 11. Since 2005, the state has not seen polio cases. Besides the routine vaccination, children are vaccinated twice a year as part of the pulse polio campaign. According to the directorate of public health, this year, around 71 lakh children will be covered under the pulse polio programme.