40 lakh children to be given polio drops in Haryana on Feb 11

Chandigarh, Jan 31 (UNI) The 3-day national pulse polio campaign will be launched in Haryana from February 11 to administer polio vaccine to about 40 lakh children between the age of 0-5 years.

While stating this today, Health Minister, Mrs Kartar Devi said that during the campaign, 15,590 booths would be set up at different places in urban and rural areas of the state and 61,000 vaccinators would be deployed to administer polio vaccine to the children.

She said that while polio vaccine would be administered at booths during the first day of the campaign, teams of vaccinators would go from house-to-house during next two days to cover those children who might have not been taken to the booths the first day.

Mrs Kartar Devi said that during the campaign, the vaccinators would carry the polio vaccine in vaccine carriers which help it in maintaining proper temperature. As many as 5,000 vaccine carriers with ice packs have been procured to maintain the quality of vaccine during the pulse polio campaign and also during immunisation sessions. The cold chain of the Health Department was being strengthening with the assistance of Central Government by procuring equipment from time to time to store vaccine.

She said that during the campaign, special attention would be paid to those residing in slums, far flung areas, isolated hutments, brick kilns and floating population. She cautioned that in pockets where the children remained unimmunised, the polio virus sustained survival, but with every successive round of pulse polio immunisation, the area of poliovirus circulation got reduced.

She urged the people to cooperate and get their children immunised and make this campaign a success. Recently, during the 3-day pulse polio campaign conducted from January 7, about 40 lakh children were covered, she added.

UNI