Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

Polio: "No letup in surveillance in State"

Shastry V. Mallady

Plan for another round of immunisation soon

MADURAI: Despite the State Health Department engaged in meeting the challenge of Chikungunya fever, the attention on polio is not diverted and preparations are under way for a Pulse Polio Immunisation (PPI) during coming January.

Senior officials from the Directorate of Public Health and the National Polio Surveillance Project said this here on Friday when they informed that Tamil Nadu would have another round of immunisation for all children from 0-5 years of age.

An official in the polio surveillance wing said that the preparations for PPI would begin in December and already the surveillance in both rural and urban pockets has been stepped up even though there was no polio case reported in the State so far this year.

The dates of National Immunisation Days are now being worked out and they are likely to be announced towards the end of this month, the official said adding that the PPI may be carried out across the country in January.

"No complacency"

Meanwhile, the Joint Director of Public Health, S. Elango, who was visiting southern districts for a review meeting on disease surveillance, said that there was no `complacency' on the part of Directorate of Public Health or the State Health Department.

"We won't give any room for polio to strike again. In fact we are sensitising the health staff towards polio surveillance and Chikungunya or dengue have not diverted our attention," Dr. Elango said and added that steps were being taken to maintain the cold chain facility well.

He said the polio vaccine availability was good and there was a monitoring mechanism to check that the vaccine potency is not lost.

The last time PPIs were held in the State was on April 9 and May 21 this year.

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