CHENNAI: This year's pulse polio campaign will be held on April 9 and May 21.

Health department officials discussed the campaign at Ripon Buildings on Thursday. According to sources, the officials are hoping to vaccinate 4.74 lakh children below five years. They have exceeded the target fixed in the campaign since 1997 and hope to continue the trend.

This year, officials have planned to vaccinate children at 900 fixed booths and 100 mobile booths. They will be located at government hospitals, Chennai Corporation family welfare centres, temples, churches, mosques, anganwadi centres, private nursing homes, Koyambedu bus terminus and railway stations. More than 4,500 government workers will volunteer for the campaign in which several voluntary organisations are expected to participate.

Endemic disease

India is listed by health organisations as being endemic for poliomyelitis. Health officials say the disease is seasonal with cases starting to increase sharply in June, with a peak during July through September and October.

Prior to the introduction of National Immunisation Days in 1995, an estimated 35,000 children were paralysed by polio every year. Significant reductions in cases were seen in subsequent years but in 2002, more than 1,600 cases were reported in a major outbreak originating in western Uttar Pradesh and also spread to other States that had been polio-free.

Not all children infected by poliovirus show signs of the disease since paralysis occurs only one out of 200 infected children.

The virus spreads rapidly and transmission is usually widespread by the time paralysis spreads in. The transmission and seasonality of poliovirus is similar to gastrointestinal diseases like diarrhoea and typhoid.

Last confirmed case

The last confirmed polio case in Chennai was in 2003. There were two more cases that year in the State — one each in Tiruchi and Tirunelveli. In 2004, another case of polio was confirmed in Tirunelveli.

Last year, 34 children were reported with symptoms of acute placid paralysis in Chennai but no one was confirmed for polio.

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