-The Hindu The Centre has launched a major war against Japanese Encephalitis which claims hundreds of young lives and causes high morbidity among children in several States across the country during monsoon. Within weeks of taking over, Union Health and Family welfare Minister, Dr Harsh Vardhan said that his priority would be to ensure 100 per cent immunisation against the killer disease. Expressing extreme distress over the "runaway conquest of Encephalitis," Dr Harsh...

-The Indian Express India's expenditure on vaccines should count as sound investment in a healthy future. Plans by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to introduce four new vaccines to India's Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) have been welcomed across the globe as one of the most significant leaps in India's public health policy in 30 years, and rightly so. These vaccines are currently available in India only on the private market, beyond the reach...

-BBC India will provide four new vaccines free of cost as part of a programme to reduce child mortality, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said. They include one for rotavirus, which kills thousands of children a year. The disease causes dehydration and severe diarrhoea. It spreads via contaminated hands and surfaces, and is common in Asia and Africa. The move brings to 13 the number of free vaccines provided against life threatening diseases. "The introduction...

-The Times of India   MUZAFFARPUR: Union health minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday claimed at Kanti primary health centre (PHC) near here that 92% of the children affected by acute Encephalitis syndrome (AES) had not been administered vaccination for Japanese Encephalitis (JE). Launching a two-day JE vaccination drive in Muzaffarpur district from Kanti, the minister said it is a subject of research whether the AES is a form of JE or not. The...

-The Indian Express   Affected children are largely from around a litchi plantation in Malda West Bengal: In the last three days, nine babies aged three to five have died in Malda district after showing symptoms that suggested acute Encephalitis syndrome. A seasonal disease for years in UP's Gorakhpur and Bihar's Muzaffarpur, AES appears to have broken out in West Bengal for the first time, alarming scientists who are wondering if the children...