Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The pulse polio campaign is to be launched across 16 districts on Sunday with the aim of immunising kids against polio and to keep the country safe from the deadly disease. Not only the health department, but other departments, too, will coordinate to mobilise children and cover most of the children by immunising them.
Children below the age of five years will be covered on the first day of the campaign launched at the booth level. According to nodal officer Dr Tarun Gupta, the department has been entrusted with a target of administering polio drops to 5,20,000 children in the district and is aiming to achieve over 80 per cent of the mark on the very first day of the three-day campaign.
The official added that vaccination against polio started in the country in 1978 with the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI). The last reported cases of wild polio in India were in West Bengal and Gujarat on January 13, 2011. On March 27, 2014, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared India a polio-free country as no cases of wild polio have been reported since then.
‘We’re targeting administering of polio drops at 3,500 booths to be set up across the district with the help of paramedical and nursing students and our health activists. On the first day (Sunday), we’ll launch the drive at the booths and the activists will reach every doorstep to administer drops to those who couldn’t reach the booths on Sunday,’ said Dr Tarun Gupta, nodal officer.
