Nearly 900k children under 5 yrs vaccinated against polio
NEW DELHI: India on Sunday immunised close to 900,000 children under 5 years of age against Polio, shows provisional data released by the Union ministry of health and family welfare.
Vaccinations were conducted at close to 700,000 booths which were staffed with around 1.2 million vaccinators and 180,000 supervisors across the country.
President Ram Nath Kovind launched the National Polio Immunisation Day for 2021 by administering polio drops to children less than five years at Rashtrapati Bhawan on Saturday. This year’s polio drive was rescheduled from the earlier date of January 17 to January 31 because of the Covid-19 vaccination which was launched on January 16.
The booth activity will be followed by house-to-house surveillance (mop-up rounds) over the next two to five days to identify and vaccinate children who missed the polio drive.
Healthcare workers will be visiting as many as 20 million households to ensure that no child is left without the protection of the polio vaccine. “Vaccination teams have also been deployed at bus terminals, railway stations, airports and ferry crossing to vaccinate children in transit to ensure no child misses the life-saving dose,” said health ministry in a statement.
India has been free of polio for a decade, with the last case of wild poliovirus reported on January 13, 2011.
The country, however, continues to take measures, including conducting annual polio vaccination drive, to prevent re-entry of the poliovirus into the country from neighbouring countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where wild poliovirus continues to cause disease.
India conducts one nationwide National Immunisation Day, and two Sub-National Immunization Days (SNIDs) for polio every year to maintain population immunity against wild poliovirus, and to sustain its polio free status.
“Maintaining a polio-free status for 10 years is a huge accomplishment in the history of public health in India... no child should suffer from polio preventable disease,” said Harsh Vardhan, Union health minister on the polio vaccination drive.
HEALTHCARE WORKERS WILL BE VISITING 20 MILLION HOUSEHOLDS TO ENSURE THAT NO CHILD IS LEFT WITHOUT POLIO VACCINE