39 lakh children to be covered in the Pulse Polio Campaign in Hary

Chandigarh, May 18 (UNI) As many as 39 lakh children in the age group of zero to five years and 41 lakh households will be covered in Haryana in the second National Polio Round to be held on May 21.

Chairing the meeting of the state Pulse Polio Steering Committee here yesterday, Chief Secretary Prem Prashant said nearly 15,300 polio booths will be set up across the state to make the campaign a success. He further disclosed that the campaign would be undertaken over a period of three days.

The first day will be taken up for vaccination of children coming to the booths, while in the remaining two days, house-to-house visits would be conducted to administer the vaccine.

He said two-third children of the state will be covered through booth activities whereas the remaining one-third will be covered in household visits.

Mr Prashant stated that in this round of the campaign, special attention would be paid to congregation sites, brick kilns, buses etc. He informed that mobile teams would be arranged to provide vaccine to the children in transit.

The government was concerned after a polio case was detected in Jhajjar last year, he said added, that two cases were noticed in the state in 2004.

The Chief Secretary claimed that in Haryana the number of polio cases had reduced drastically from 37 in 2002 to one last year.

He said the Union government had sanctioned Rs 1.28 crore for the second National Polio round.

Urvashi Gulati, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Health department, who was also present during the meeting, disclosed that as many as 60,000 booth workers would be required for the campaign and nearly 3060 supervisors to supervise the working in the booths.

She urged the other departments to assist the Health Department with logistics and manpower for making the Pulse Polio Campaign a huge success.

UNI HS SI KN1525