Polio vaccine drive to reach 5 lakh people

Kurnool, 31 January, 2016 - District Immunisation Officer (DIO) Dr R Venkata Ramana said that elaborative arrangements have been made to make the pulse polio drive, a grand success. Addressing a press conference here at District Medical and Health Office, the DIO said, as part of the national immunisation programme, as many as 5.31 lakh children below five years will be administered polio drops. The first phase of pulse polio programme would be held from January 29 to February 1 across the district, he said. The DIO said a total of 2,771 polio booths have been set up to administer polio drops to children aged between 0-5 years across the district. He stated 95 mobile teams are being pressed into service to cover children of migrated families, temples, churches, mosques, marriage halls, construction sites, public parks, temporary settlements and markets. “Of them, 2,237 booths for rural, 439 for urban and 95 will work on mobile duty,” he added. As many as 11,084 personnel have been deployed for polio programme from all the departments. Nursing students, ASHAs, Anganwadi workers, medical students, NCC, Scouts & Guides, community volunteers and self-help groups will take part in the programme. In addition, 277 supervisors are allocated to inspect the pulse polio drive. The health official said that the children, who have missed the drops at booths, will be covered during house-to-house visits by the teams from January 30th to February 1st. Polio centres will also be operated at all transit points like railway stations and bus stations which will be working round-the-clock from the midnight of January 29th. Another pulse polio drive will be held on April 2nd. Venkata Ramana said no indigenous cases of polio have been reported in Kurnool since 2003. He said that staff concerned will distribute 6.2 lakh vaccination doses with the support of 11,084 vaccinators across the district. We have made all arrangements for the success of programme, he added. He called upon the parents to administer polio drops to their children.