Health and Hygiene
This domain covers immunisation, common childhood illnesses, water and sanitation, and the health services an Anganwadi worker supports through growth monitoring and referral.
National Immunisation Schedule
- At birth: BCG, OPV-0, Hepatitis B birth dose.
- 6 weeks: Pentavalent-1, OPV-1, Rotavirus-1, fIPV-1, PCV-1.
- 10 weeks: Pentavalent-2, OPV-2, Rotavirus-2.
- 14 weeks: Pentavalent-3, OPV-3, Rotavirus-3, fIPV-2, PCV-2.
- 9–12 months: Measles-Rubella-1, JE-1 (endemic districts), PCV booster.
- 16–24 months: MR-2, JE-2, DPT booster-1, OPV booster. Vitamin A is given at 9 months and then six-monthly up to five years.
Diarrhoea and hygiene
Diarrhoea is treated with ORS plus zinc for 14 days; ORS is not a cure but replaces lost fluid. Handwashing with soap at five critical times - after defecation, after cleaning a child, before cooking, before eating, before feeding a child - prevents most diarrhoeal disease.
Worked example
A ten-month-old has received BCG, OPV-0, and all three pentavalent doses but nothing since. What is due? Reasoning: the 14-week series is complete, so the schedule now calls for MR-1, JE-1 in endemic areas and the PCV booster; the 16–24 month doses come later.
Traps that cost marks
Confusing OPV-0 (birth) with OPV-1 (six weeks); stating zinc for 5 days instead of 14; and treating ORS as a medicine that stops stools.