National Vaccination Day 2022: National Vaccination Day (NVD) or National Immunization Day (NID) is observed every year on March 16 in India to convey the importance of vaccination and its role in public health.

Key Facts:

• Apart from the impact in public health, the impact of vaccination also has a social or economic impact at the community and the National level.
• The main purpose behind the celebration of NVD is to make all people aware of arming against polio and eradicating it completely from the world.
• NVD 2022 is also important amid the COVID-19 pandemic against which vaccine has come out to be the only solution of preventing the deadly disease.
• In 2021, India started its biggest Covid-19 immunization programme.
• This day also marks India’s victory against Polio disease.
• In order to sustain the eradication, GoI organizes Pulse Polio immunization campaigns on the standards set by World Health Organization (WHO).

Theme of National Vaccination Day 2022:

• The National Vaccination Day 2022 theme is “Vaccines Work For All”.
• National Vaccination Day 2022 theme highlights how vaccines work for all and save lives all around the world.

History:

• National Immunization Day was first observed on 16th March 1995 when India started the Pulse Polio Programme and the first dose of Oral Polio vaccine was given.
• The last case of wild polio was reported on 13 January 2011.
• The Pulse Polio Program in India became a huge success as on 27th March 2014, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced India to be a ‘Polio Free Country’.
• Following the success of the Polio Program, India began its work on vaccination against severe diseases such as TB, mumps, tetanus, and much more.

India's Vaccination Mission:

In 2014, Mission Indradhanush was launched by the Government of India under the Universal Immunization Program to better the health of mothers and children who are deprived of vaccination.

This mission aims to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of ending preventable child deaths by 2030.

The world’s largest COVID-19 vaccination program has been launched in India with an aim of vaccinating the entire population against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Significance of Immunization Day:

• The National Immunization Day is one of the four strategies that are recommended by the WHO to eradicate polio completely. According to WHO, the NID has to be conducted twice a year at a gap of 2 to 4 weeks.
• There are two types of vaccines that are being administered in the country.

•  It includes IPV (Inactivated Polio Vaccine) and OPV (Oral Polio Vaccine).

What is Vaccination?

• Vaccination or immunization Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease.
• Vaccine-induced broad immunity is largely responsible for the worldwide eradication of smallpox and the containment of diseases like polio, measles, and tetanus in large swaths of the world.
• The information about the licensed vaccines that are currently available to prevent or add to the prevention and control of twenty-five preventable infections are given by the World Health Organization (WHO).