74.39 lakh children to get polio drops

Minister for Health and Family Welfare U T Khader said polio drops will be administered to 74.39 lakh children, aged below five years, in the second phase of pulse polio immunisation campaign in the State on February 21. 

Briefing mediapersons here on Friday, he said the Department of Health and Family Welfare has made all necessary arrangements to make the campaign a success. A total of 32,617 booths have been set up and 1,03,464 vaccinators will be deployed to administer polio drops to children across the State.  To make the drive more effective, 1,205 mobile teams and 1,736 transit teams have been constituted, the minister explained.

Khader said though India has been declared polio free nation by the WHO, the country needs to be cautious with the cases recurring in neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanisthan. 

The department has identified many high risk areas in the State, where it aims to immunise every child against polio. The high risk areas are children of construction workers, and migrant labourers. Transit teams have been constituted to administer polio drops to children in bus stand, railway station, airport and other public places. Across the State, 29,000 risk areas have been identified, he added. 

The department has marked slums with migrant population, nomads, brick lanes, construction sites and others as high risk areas. The last case of polio in India was reported in Howrah, West Bengal, five years ago. The last one in Karnataka was in November 2007. 

But since many of India’s neighbouring countries still have active polio virus, immunisation is important to prevent any relapse, he said. 

In the first phase, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike limits has registered 99.91 per cent, Yadgir per cent, Raichur—99.72 per cent, Ballari—99.59 per cent, Kalaburagi—99.55 per cent, Chikkamagaluru—99.52 per cent, Gadag—99.28 per cent, Hassan 99.09 per cent, Bidar—98.81 per cent, Chitradurga—98.81pe rcent, Vijayapura—98.02 per cent, Bagalkot—97.63 per cent, Ramanagaram—95.32 per cent and Uttara Kannada—92.48 per cent success rates. Other districts have reached cent percent success rate. The successful percentage at the booth level vaccination is 86 per cent across the State, he said and appealed to the parents to administer their child with polio drops. 

District Health Officer Dr Ramakrishna said health workers will visit the houses in rural areas  on February 22 and 23 to ensure that no child is left out of the drive. In the urban areas, the health workers will visit from February 22 tp 24. 

The Dakshina Kannada district has a total of 921 booths to administer polio drops. In the first phase, polio drops were administered to 1,68,947 children. The district will have 148 supervisors in rural areas and 44 in urban areas. 

The polio drops will be administered at district hospital, taluk health hospital, government hospitals, PHCs and CHCs as well, he added.