Response of Various Stakeholders towards Newly Introduced Japanese Encephalitis Vaccine in a North Indian State

Abstract

Introduction. Many attempts had been made to introduce newer vaccines into national immunization schedule of India. Special vaccines campaigns for diseases like JE were also initiated, which required a lot of preparation before vaccinating the beneficiaries. Objectives. To ascertain response of various stakeholders regarding launch of Japanese encephalitis vaccination campaign by state government in district Ambala, Haryana. Methodology. A 30-cluster survey was done to assess the vaccine coverage and views of the stakeholders. Various officials of state health services were also interviewed. Results. JE vaccine coverage was found to be 93.9%. Majority (59.8%) of the parents were informed about JE vaccination by the health worker. Many (83; 41.7%) parents said that they got their child vaccinated for JE since it “endangers life of children” and 82 (41.2%) said that “since everybody got it.” All the staff was trained for JE vaccination campaign. Conclusion. JE vaccination campaign was a success with adequate preparation. Majority of people accepted vaccine in good faith in the government rather than due to their knowledge about disease.