Bhubaneswar, March 23: Union minister for health and family welfare J.P. Nadda will launch the rotavirus vaccine through the universal immunisation programme at the national level in Bhubaneswar on March 26 to reduce child deaths and disabilities from diarrhoea.

Besides Odisha, the vaccine will be provided, in the first phase of roll out, to all children in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh. Later, it will be expanded across the country.

The vaccine would be administered, along with other available vaccines, in three doses during the regular immunisation sessions across the state's 30 districts. Each dose consists of five drops per child. Around 8.53 lakh children between 0-1 year would be targeted through 26,000 state-wide immunisation sessions every month.

Globally, children are provided with rotavirus vaccine through national immunisation programmes in 80 countries, to reduce child deaths and disabilities from diarrhoea.

Ahead of the national launch of the vaccine, a workshop was organised to discuss the importance of new vaccines in reducing child mortality under five years and improving child survival.

State health department and Unicef officials discussed the dangers of rotavirus, which causes diarrhoea and leads to approximately 78,000 deaths every year in India.

It kills one child every four minutes in India and is a leading cause of deaths in children under five in the country, contributing to about 40 per cent of diarrhoea-related deaths among children. About 8.7 lakh children are hospitalised annually in the country due to rotavirus-related diarrhoea. Odisha has a mortality rate of 66 per 1,000 live births in children under five years (sample registration system 2013), of which, diarrhoea is a major contributor.

Family welfare director Nirmala Dei said: "Rotavirus vaccine offers the best hope for preventing the deadly dehydrating diarrhoea, savin thousands of young children. Earlier, the benefits of this vaccine were available only to those who could afford it, but now it would be available to every child in the state."

Yumi Bae, UNICEF's chief of field officer in Odisha said: "It is important that information about the availability of the rotavirus vaccine reaches all mothers and care-givers in the state. Odisha reports one of the highest under-five mortality, of which diarrhoea is a major contributor."