Bihar vows to eradicate polio

Patna, Apr 16: Vowing to eradicate polio, Bihar Health minister Chandra Mohan Rai assured to make available all possible resources of the government for the mission.

The medical fraternity also reaffirmed their faith in the oral polio vaccine as the best availabel tool to root out the crippling disease from the country.

''The government is fully committed to the cause of polio eradication and was ready to commit all energies to stop polio virus transmission,'' the health minister said.

The government was also strengthening the routine immunisation which has improved from 11 per cent to 33 per cent since August 2005, the minister said at the IAP-UNICEF Polio Workshop attended by national and state-level experts and member of Indian Academy of Pediatricians (IAP) and the Indian Medical Association(IMA).

Both IMA and IAP, national bodies of private practitioners, reiterated their faith in the oral polio vaccine and pledged full support to the programme.

IAP president Dr Naveen Thacker said that the monovalent polio vaccine type 1(mopv1), being used in polio rounds, was the best means to interrupt polio virus transmission in the coming months which provides a window of opportunity for india.

He said the vaccine has been in use in polio campaigns since January 2006. Earlier trivalent oral polio vaccine (topv) was administered to children during rounds which gave protection against all three type of polio viruses-P1,P2 and P3.

Dr Thacker said the coming months were the best to interrupt polio virus transmission as the immunity level was already up due to the outbreak last year and the coverage had increased in the last few months.

WHO representative Dr Hamid Jafri said the vaccine, in Bihar, was already protecting millions of children from polio. Evidences regarding the vaccine's effectiveness from the most densely endemic parts in India, Egypt and many other countries indicate that with consistently high quality campaigns, polio virus transmission could be stopped.

Indian Medical Association president Dr Ajay Kumar said its members would use every opportunity to mobilise parents and the community by removing misconceptions about the vaccine and ensure maximum coverage in every round.

Both IAP and IMA would also ensure that their clients take the campaign vaccine, Dr Thacker and Dr Kumar said.

UNICEF's State Representative for Bihar, Bijaya Rajbhandari, said the organisation would expand its social mobilisation activities to almost all districts of the state to further increase community awareness.

Noted Bhojpuri film actor Manoj Tiwari, who had been supporting the programme, also participated in the meeting and reaffirmed his commitment to the programme.

At the meeting, IAP announced free treatment to the polio affected, for any kind of ailment, by its members on a voluntary basis.

The polio eradication programme is being carried out in Bihar by the state government with support from NPSP-WHO, UNICEF Rotary, Indian Railways NCC, COMFED and banks.

UNI