Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh, which has the dubious distinction of housing about one third of total polio cases in the country, will go for a decisive eight-phase pulse polio immunisation programme in 2006, starting January 15.

The state, alongwith Bihar, has reported most of the polio cases, notwithstanding an aggressive country-wide pulse polio campaign launched about a decade ago.

The year 2006 would see Uttar Pradesh go all out against polio with a resolve to uproot the health menace from the State, State Family Welfare Minister Ahmad Hassan said.

As per official statistics, Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of the country with about 17 crore people, reported 28 polio cases out of a total of 63 cases in the country in 2005. Many third world countries accounted for polio cases with the global figure touching 1676.

While the first of the eight phases of definitive pulse polio drive in the state would be launched on January 15, the State Government faces the task of not only making the drive a success, but also making the largest state polio-free in the times to come, Mr Hassan said.

Not making light of the achievements made by the State in eradication of polio, Mr Hassan said here the State had made definite strides in the field with number of polio cases coming down drastically from a high as 1242 in 65 districts of the state in 2002 to 28 in 14 districts in 2005.

"There was a time when out of a total of 1600 polio cases in the country, U.P. accounted for 1242 in 2002," he said, adding, it is quite an achievement on the part of the State Government to keep it on the lower side. As compared to the figures in 2002, the polio cases have dropped to 88 in 25 district during 2003 and 82 in 15 districts during 2004. In the 14 districts where the 28 polio cases were found in 2005, four patients each have been reported from Ferozabad, Moradabad and Etah, two each in Rampur, Aligarh, Agra, Badaun and Bareilly followed by one each in Hathras, Baghpat, Bijnore, Shahajahanpur, Bulandshahar and Mainpuri.

The U.P. Government has already issued guidelines to make this year's pulse polio programme a grand success as a senior health and Family Welfare official said that it was high time the state got rid of the polio menace. "It is possible only if the pulse polio programme was implemented successfully," he said. The U.P. Government plans to launch pulse polio programme on a large scale with lot of publicity and awareness drives which would be carried out by over three lakh personnel.

-- UNI

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