Sri Lanka National Immunization Programme

Sri Lanka's national childhood vaccination program, with roots reaching back to compulsory smallpox vaccination under the country's 1886 Vaccination Ordinance and a steady expansion of covered diseases through the twentieth century, including BCG for tuberculosis in 1949, the diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine in 1961, oral polio vaccine in 1962 and tetanus toxoid for pregnant women in 1969. Sri Lanka formally launched its Expanded Programme on Immunization in 1978 in alignment with the World Health Organization's global initiative, initially targeting childhood tuberculosis, tetanus, whooping cough, diphtheria, polio and neonatal tetanus before shifting its focus toward outright disease elimination from 1988 onward. The programme has sustained routine vaccine coverage above 95 percent in recent years, recorded its last confirmed polio case in 1993, and went on to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus in 2016 and congenital rubella syndrome in 2020, achievements that also helped the country mount a strong COVID-19 vaccine rollout on top of existing programme infrastructure.