Hepatitis B Immunization in Public Health Mode in India Virologist’s Perspective

without public health infrastructure and accessible, affordable, quality healthcare [1]. So EPI would offer free service, made affordable to country budgets by enabling relatively low-paid, minimally trained health-workers to inoculate a few selected vaccines (BCG, DTP, OPV and measles). To monitor vaccine-delivery efficiency, coverage survey was designed. India adopted EPI in 1978 without measles vaccine and re-named it Universal Immunization Program (UIP) in 1985, after including measles vaccine. The proximate purpose of UIP was vaccine delivery, but its potential was control of vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) [2]. In healthcare, immunization is to protect individual children, but in ‘public health mode ’ it is for VPD control. Control means reduction of diseas