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In pictures: History of mass vaccination in India

Team 30 Stades

01 May 2021 00:00 IST

New Update

In pictures: History of mass vaccination in India — In pictures: History of vaccination in India small pox first vaccine in India TB BCG vaccine pulse polio vaccine 30 stades

India is currently struggling with unprecedented cases of COVID-19, crossing the tally of 4 lakh per day. There is lack of oxygen, hospital beds, doctors and also hope. Crematoriums and burial grounds have run out of space and the dead are being cremated wherever possible. In these tough times, everyone is pinning hopes on Coronavirus vaccination, which can reduce the fatality rate drastically.

Almost 220 years after the first person was vaccinated in India, the country is struggling to immunise its citizens against COVID-19 due to inadequate supplies.

The smallpox vaccine lymph arrived in India in May 1802 and was first sent to Bombay (now Mumbai) followed by Madras (now Chennai), Poona (Pune), Hyderabad and Surat.

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The first vaccination in India was given to Anna Dusthall, a three-year-old from Mumbai, on June 14, 1802.

Back then, the vaccines were administered by ‘travelling vaccinators’ who were trained and went from place to place to inoculate every one. In the later years of the century, the vaccination was implemented through ‘vaccination and sanitary departments’ and there were Sanitary Commissioners who were given the charge of these efforts.

The outbreak of cholera and plague in India (1896-1907) followed by the Influenza Pandemic coinciding with the First World War (1914-1918) greatly influenced the vaccination efforts in India. The responsibility of vaccination was passed on to the local governments by the Centre. Also the typhoid vaccine trials began in 1904 and lasted until 1908.

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Between 1910 and 1930, a number of vaccine institutes were set up in the country and BCG vaccination (used against Tuberculosis) began on a pilot basis in 1948.

India had achieved freedom a year before and by 1951, BCG mass campaigns were rolled out. The fight against diseases was more focused in independent India.

The year 1962 was a milestone as National Smallpox Eradication Programme as well as the National Tuberculosis Eradication Programme were rolled out.

The government then invested in vaccine manufacturing and hired healthcare workers to perform inoculations across the country.

By 1966 around 60 million primary vaccinations and 440 million re-vaccinations were given.

In 1970, the first indigenous oral polio vaccine trivalent Sabin was made.

In 1997, on a single day in January, India vaccinated 127 million children. India was declared polio-free in January 2014. Here’s India’s history of vaccination in pictures: