JOIN US73 lakh kids to be immunised
The State Health department is hoping to immunise about 73 lakh children in the age group of 0-5 in the second phase of the national pulse polio programme on Sunday.
For this, 98 lakh doses of vaccines have already been dispatched to 31,618 booths, the same booths where the first round was held on January 23.
“We are hoping to cover more ground at the immunisation camp this time. We expect over 90 per cent turnout in this round even though there will be door-to-door survey,” said Dr Y Ramesh Babu, deputy director (immunisation).
Incidentally, he said, in the last few years, the second phase has been known to receive more number of children than the first camp. “This could be partly due to increased awareness about the polio camp after the first camp,” he said.
While four north Karnataka districts –– Gulbarga, Bijapur, Bidar and Raichur –– had performed below average in the first phase, Dr Ramesh said Gulbarga, Belgaum and Kodagu had already sought for additional doses of the vaccine.
In Bangalore
A total of 4,95,378 children are going to be immunised in the City. Dr Prabhu Chandra, RCH officer, Bangalore Urban district, said vaccination vials have already been sent to 1,675 booths two days ago.
Along with the vials, information materials, printed in Kannada and Urdu, have also been sent.
Seconding Dr Ramesh’s observation, he said about one or two per cent increase was always noted in the second phase of the national polio camp. Apart from the designated booths, 140 mobile teams and 130 transit teams would also be present.
A total of 4,33,139 children were vaccinated on the booth day in Bangalore and 83,732 children were immunised in the subsequent three days.
The three-day house-to-house follow-up will begin on February 28 to see that no child is missed.
As the emphasis is more on migratory communities this year, mobile teams will be sent twice a day to areas in Bangalore East including Belandur, Varthur, Kadugodi and Doddanekundi, where construction labourers are more in number.