U-WIN app may allow mothers to report and track side effects of vaccines on babies

According to plans regarding the government’s U-WIN platform, mothers may be allowed to report the side effects of routine immunizations of their babies on the app itself.

U-WIN is comparable to the CoWIN gateway for COVID-19, which in just 18 months registered more than 2 billion vaccines. The government uses the Universal Immunisation Win (U-WIN) program to register and track routine immunization and vaccination. Currently, the U-WIN platform is exclusively accessible to healthcare practitioners. They have real-time access to information on vaccinations, side effects, follow-ups, certification, and registration.

In the past, doctors were notified when adverse occurrences, such as fever and rashes, were manually documented. The action comes as the British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca acknowledges that, in rare cases, their COVID-19 vaccination, Covishield, can cause blood clots.

At now, U-WIN is in its pilot phase, with over 40 million beneficiaries enrolled and 125 million vaccination doses recorded in two districts of every state and union territory. There will be a national rollout for the new administration.

Notably, under the universal immunization scheme, U-WIN is poised to grow into the biggest electronic immunization system in the world, servicing millions of people. It is anticipated that this would result in increased vaccination rates and a further decline in newborn mortality.

“During COVID-19, all efforts were made to how should people do self-reporting post vaccination on the CoWin portal. The same idea is being replicated to create self-reporting on the U-Win platform wherein mothers can report any kind of adverse events of their babies. Also, pregnant mothers can document and access updates about their vaccination schedules,” said an official requesting anonymity.

One of the biggest public health programs in the world, India’s Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) immunizes around 27 million babies and 30 million pregnant women for free each year against 12 serious illnesses.

The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission will soon incorporate U-WIN, giving medical professionals access to all of the patient’s medical information. The representative for the health ministry did not respond to inquiries.

1,026 occurrences of significant or severe side effects were recorded following immunization in FY 2021–2022. The national guidelines on adverse effects are now being revised in light of the operational modifications made to the procedures for reporting mild, moderate, and severe adverse effects after receiving the COVID-19 immunization.

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