National Vaccination Day: Vaccination Is A Must For All

National Vaccination Day is celebrated every year on March 16 to highlight the importance of vaccination in the fight against deadly diseases and to raise awareness of how it has a positive effect on public health. National Vaccination Day was first observed in the year 1995. This was the year in which India had started the Pulse Polio Program. Following the successful Pulse Polio drive, the Government of India declared March 16 as National Vaccination Day to help spread the message of the significance of vaccination for the people of the country. The day is also celebrated as National Immunization Day. Every year, the government comes up with some theme to create awareness of these issues among the people. This year the theme for National Vaccination Day is “Vaccines work for all”.

Vaccines are an important weapon in the fight against fatal diseases like Tuberculosis (TB), Tetanus, Coronavirus (COVID-19) and more. And since their advent, vaccines have saved millions of lives.

Vaccination has played a vital role in bringing the COVID-19 outbreak under control. Some of the important COVID-19 vaccines are:

Messenger RNA (mRNA) Vaccine:

The mRNA creates a spike protein, which acts as a protective layer in a human body to safeguard the person from COVID-19.

Viral Vector Vaccines

It generates antibodies by using another virus to fight against certain deadly pathogens -- COVID-19 in this case.

Protein Subunit Vaccine

It helps stimulate the immune system of the human body to fight deadly diseases like COVID-19.

One of the fallouts of the spread of Covid-19 and the result lockdowns is that a large number of children were left out of the vaccination safety net. As a result, diseases such as mumps, pertussis (whooping cough), chickenpox, and measles have once again reared their ugly heads and are spreading among the people. Children are at most risk of contracting these diseases. This is followed by women, including pregnant women, who fall prey to these ailments quite easily. So, it’s imperative that the health of both women and children should be monitored and treated effectively for the family, and society at large, to remain healthy. Special attention should be accorded to pregnant women to help avoid these viruses from infecting both the would-be-mother and the unborn child, thus, complicating the pregnancy.

Dr Kanchan S Channawar, Senior Pediatrician & Pediatric Intensivist - Kamineni Hospitals, Hyderabad said, "The National Vaccination Day has a great significance. Covid-19 and the vaccines that helped bring it under control have once again shown the importance of vaccination in bringing deadly diseases under control and helping maintain the good health of the people. The World Health Organization (WHO) too, has repeatedly said that vaccination acts as a protection tool for controlling and eliminating life-threatening infectious diseases like COVID-19. Therefore, it is the duty of each one of us to take vaccination on time and remain healthy. We owe that to ourselves, our families, the society, the nation, and the world at large."