Nagpur yet to get Yellow Fever Vaccination centre

Principal Correspondent :

Even though there are facilities well enough to start Yellow Fever Vaccination Centre, nothing has moved forward in this regard. Intervention by former Maharashtra Minister Shobhatai Fadnavis who had sent a letter in 2015 to Maharashtra’s then Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis failed to make an impact. Yellow fever vaccine protects against yellow fever, a viral infection caused to people in African and South American countries. Most people begin to develop immunity within ten days and 99% are protected within one month of vaccination. Anybody who travels to the above countries has to do the Yellow Fever vaccination. The Vaccination centre provides the certificate to the candidate which he or she has to carry during their tour to the above countries. Maharashtra Government has been planning to set up a Yellow Fever Vaccination centre at Daga Hospital at Nagpur since 2014.

But the planning is yet to make any progress. There are only two Government centres in Maharashtra-- Mumbai and Pune. Nagpur covers almost all parts of Central India and if the centre is brought to the city then the travelers even from Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana to African countries would be benefited. Nagpur has already emerged as connection to international places through air. Considering this fact the Yellow Fever Vaccination Centre has become a necessity.

A doctor told ‘The Hitavada’, “I had been to African countries and had faced difficulty in getting Yellow Fever Vaccination. I came to know that there was a private hospital that provides the vaccination facility. Due to its monopoly, the private hospital charges as per its whims and fancies.” Daga Hospital, where the centre is proposed to begin, is ready but needs permission from Family and Welfare Department of Maharashtra. Daga is a women’s and children hospital, so it has necessary facilities. The team of the department had been to Daga hospital.

The team had recommended certain changes which the hospital did. It had trained the team for conducting the procedure. Unfortunately, after the team visited the centre, it did not communicate it to the Centre. Meanwhile, the trained members of the team have been transferred as a routine procedure. As Daga became the non-starter, only one centre in Nagpur is running at Hope Hospital, Kamptee Road. Hope Hospital, being private, is charging around Rs 6,000 from every tourist, it is learnt. The travelers have no choice then to get the vaccination done from Hope Hospital. If the centre starts at Daga then people have to pay not more than Rs 1,800. It will not only reduce the cost but the credibility would be more.