The state government has decided to immunise all children between 1 to 15 years of age in Ambala district against Japanese Encephalitis (JE) this year. A meeting to implement the Japanese Encephalitis Vaccination Campaign to be started next month was held under the chairmanship of Dr Satvir Chaudhary, director health services (malaria), Haryana, here today.

Children who are breastfed after birth are smarter than those who aren't. According to the world's largest study on lactation and intelligence, that followed 17,046 children for six and a half years from birth, children whose mothers exclusively breastfed them during the first year of life had consistently higher IQ and an improved cognitive (thinking, learning and memory) development.

A three-month-old boy, which was administered vaccine on Wednesday died on Saturday The child's parents alleged that death was due to vaccination while the Health Department declared it to be death due to diarrhoea.

Five years after battling an epidemic of the deadly SARS virus, China's Health Ministry issued a nationwide alert on Saturday following the outbreak of another virus that has already killed 22 children in one city and is showing signs of spreading. The virus in question is a form of foot and mouth disease called Enterovirus 71, or EV-71. More than 3,300 cases were reported by Thursday night, the most recent numbers available. Apart from the 22 deaths among children in Fuyang in Anhui province, 978 people are currently hospitalised with it, according to the Health Ministry.

Hearsay among people in Uttar Pradesh has led to the high incidence of polio in the state. A team which went to administer polio drops to under five children here, met with a considerable resistance from parents. "These drops will make our children paralytic',said some parents in Harola village. Dr. Anil Kumar ,who led the team ,tried to convince the parents,but could not. Later, Dy CMO Dr. P.K. Singh was able to persuade the parents to bring out their children for polio drops.

With 30 crore poor people in India, the number of poor has barely changed over the last three decades. According to 11th Five year Plan, total number of poor people counted 32.13 crore in 1973, 32.29 crore in 1983, 32.03 crore in 1993-94 and 30.17 crore in 2004-05. This means the number of poor in the country has declined between 1993-94 and 2004-05 by roughly two crore. Even after sixty years of independence, over a quarter of our population still remains poor. However, the country has successfully reduced the share of the poor in the population from 54.8 in 1973 to 27.5 in 2004.

WHILE some districts reported a lower than usual turnout at the vaccination drive held across the state on Wednesday, government health officials said the overall response was good, with an average turnout of 95 per cent. Following the death of four infants after administration of measles vaccine in Tiruvallur district last week, the Government moved the vaccination programme from the villages to primary health centres and hospitals to be held under medical supervision. Health education on breast-feeding and child care was also provided to the mothers.

The 16 Assam Rifles of 9 Sector under HQ IGAR (South) has organized a Hepatitis

THE death of a nine-month-old baby girl created a flutter in Tirunelveli on Tuesday after the parents of the baby claimed that the death was due to administration of Hepatitis B vaccination. A joint enquiry was conducted by the Health Department officials and Tirunelveli Corporation. While officials claimed to have evidence confirming that the baby was administered vaccine on April 9, the parents alleged it was on April 28.