Jun 03 2015 : The Times of India (Bangalore)
Sunitha Rao
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Bengaluru:
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When Janan Bharath became a mother she struggled to balance car ing for her baby, doing all the household chores and her regular schedule at work. Be fore she realized it, she had missed two routine vaccina tions for her baby.Though she quickly made up for it, it struck her tha many parents, caught up in the whorl of parenthood probably forget too.
She began working with paediatrician and fellow Ben galurean Dr Ranjan Kumar Pejaver and seven years later they came up with a free tex messaging reminder service to ensure that mothers take their children for their shots on time. The IAP-Immuni zeIndia service was rolled ou as a pilot programme in 2013 and launched nationwide in March 2014.
Today, the service alerts 4.6 lakh parents get about vac cination schedules has been adopted by the Indian Acade my of Paediatrics. The World Health Organization has evinced interest in replicat ing the method in Latin America.
Once a parent enrolls for the free service by texting the child's name and date of birth, the reminders pop up for the next 12 years till all vaccinations are completed.Three reminders are sent: Two before the due date and one after. It is free of cost across all mobile phone net works in the country.
“My mother was shocked when I first told her that I had missed vaccination for my son. She asked me what was more important. I felt so guilty and wished there had been someone to remind me,“ says Bharath.
“That's when the thought of a reminder service using technology struck me. I knocked on the doors of many hospitals and finally founded Immunization India Charities,“ she says.
Dr Pejaver, professor of pediatrics and neonatology, Indian Academy of Paediatrics, explains that more than 1.5 million children under the age of 5 die every year in the country and 1 million or more are disabled because they are not vaccinated.
“A major reason is that parents often forget to vaccinate the child on time as most of them do not maintain a vaccination calendar for their child,“ says Dr Pejaver.
“This is seen in both urban and rural areas. For the first three months, the new mother is very careful as the family chips in and helps her.Once she returns to work, immunization is postponed or forgotten. But immunization if missed has repercussions,“ he says. “That's what we want to prevent.“
TIMES VIEW
The vaccine reminder app is another example of how technology can be used well. It's also an indication of how dependent we've become on our cellphones. Earlier, mothers would use a hardcopy calendar to mark the days when the next vaccination was due and diligently follow it. In these days of too many distractions and advanced facilities, this reminder app should do the trick and get busy mothers and their babies to doctors.Vaccination is crucial for a child's being, notwithstanding its rejection by some misguided persons in the West, and if it takes an app to ensure it's done, so be it.
She began working with paediatrician and fellow Ben galurean Dr Ranjan Kumar Pejaver and seven years later they came up with a free tex messaging reminder service to ensure that mothers take their children for their shots on time. The IAP-Immuni zeIndia service was rolled ou as a pilot programme in 2013 and launched nationwide in March 2014.
Today, the service alerts 4.6 lakh parents get about vac cination schedules has been adopted by the Indian Acade my of Paediatrics. The World Health Organization has evinced interest in replicat ing the method in Latin America.
Once a parent enrolls for the free service by texting the child's name and date of birth, the reminders pop up for the next 12 years till all vaccinations are completed.Three reminders are sent: Two before the due date and one after. It is free of cost across all mobile phone net works in the country.
“My mother was shocked when I first told her that I had missed vaccination for my son. She asked me what was more important. I felt so guilty and wished there had been someone to remind me,“ says Bharath.
“That's when the thought of a reminder service using technology struck me. I knocked on the doors of many hospitals and finally founded Immunization India Charities,“ she says.
Dr Pejaver, professor of pediatrics and neonatology, Indian Academy of Paediatrics, explains that more than 1.5 million children under the age of 5 die every year in the country and 1 million or more are disabled because they are not vaccinated.
“A major reason is that parents often forget to vaccinate the child on time as most of them do not maintain a vaccination calendar for their child,“ says Dr Pejaver.
“This is seen in both urban and rural areas. For the first three months, the new mother is very careful as the family chips in and helps her.Once she returns to work, immunization is postponed or forgotten. But immunization if missed has repercussions,“ he says. “That's what we want to prevent.“
TIMES VIEW
The vaccine reminder app is another example of how technology can be used well. It's also an indication of how dependent we've become on our cellphones. Earlier, mothers would use a hardcopy calendar to mark the days when the next vaccination was due and diligently follow it. In these days of too many distractions and advanced facilities, this reminder app should do the trick and get busy mothers and their babies to doctors.Vaccination is crucial for a child's being, notwithstanding its rejection by some misguided persons in the West, and if it takes an app to ensure it's done, so be it.
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