The Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) education department has decided to issue a letter to all private schools, urging them to fully cooperate with the civic health department in the Japanese Encephalitis (JE) vaccination programme.

As per the officials, some schools on Ahmednagar Road were hesitant to participate in the JE vaccination campaign. The schools were directing the students to take the vaccine doses in private facilities but were not ready to participate in the vaccination campaign.

The JE vaccine is mandatory, and no parental consent is required, said officials.

The vaccination drive is part of the second phase of a pilot project launched by the state health department on March 1 in Pune, Raigad, and Parbhani districts. Under the programme, children aged 1 to 15 years in Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, and Panvel municipal areas are being immunized against JE.

Dr Rajesh Dighe, assistant health officer and city immunization officer, PMC, informed that there is a good response for the immunization, but some private schools are hesitant to participate in the immunization programme. We discussed the inconvenience faced by us with the education department on Friday requesting them to issue directions to private schools.”

“Besides, the JE vaccine will be soon included in the national immunization programme,” he said.

A senior official from the PMC’s education department, on request of anonymity, said, following the discussion with the health department, instructions will be issued to the schools to cooperate and participate.

“This is a drive to prevent children from vaccine-preventable diseases. However, the schools and health departments can discuss the preferred time for the immunization campaign,” said the official.

JE is the leading viral cause of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in Asia. The disease primarily affects children under the age of 15 years. Seventy per cent of those who develop illness either die or survive with a long-term neurological disability.