20 lakh children given polio drops

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, DEC. 10.

Over 20 lakh children were administered pulse polio drops in the third phase of the Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme (PPIP) which was conducted successfully in the Capital today.

To take stock of the programme, the Delhi Health and Family Welfare Minister, Dr. A. K. Walia, visited over a dozen polio kendras set up at Nangla Machi, Shankar Road, Pusa Road, Ranjit Nagar, Pandav Nagar, Kirti Nagar, Hari Nagar, Tagore Garden and Raghubir Nagar. He expressed satisfaction over the public enthusiasm for the programme and also the way it had been organised.

Dr. Walia administered pulse polio drops to several children at a kendra set up at Janshakti Centre in Nangla Machi. The Minister was accompanied by the Ambassador of Italy, Mr. Benedette Amari, representatives of WHO, UNICEF, Rotary International, Health Secretary, Mr. R. Chandramohan, and Director of Family Welfare, Dr. Priti Mehta.

Over 9,200 kendras were set up in all the hospitals, dispensaries, schools, community and anganwadi centres as also private institutions so that people might not go far away to get their children the required drops. These included polio kendras for traveling children at all entry points of the Capital, like airports, railway stations, inter-state bus terminals and national highways.

These kendras were manned by 26,000 doctors, nurses, para- medical and other staff. Besides, 750 vehicles had been deployed, which apart from carrying vaccines to all polio kendras from the regional vaccine stores also made additional trips to ensure that there might not be any dearth of vaccine.

According to Dr. Walia, the objective was not only to immunise children against polio but also to eradicate the virus. By adopting this strategy, over 160 countries have already become polio-free, he added.

Dr. Walia said that over 7200 teams have been formed for identifying the left out children (generally two per cent are left-overs) and immunisation would be carried out by door-to-door visits in the next five days. He appealed to all Delhiites to extend their full co-operation to the health workers visiting their houses for administering polio drops.

The next phase of PPI programme would be organised on January 21.

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