The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Pulse polio drive to be held on Sunday

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Wednesday, Feb 23, 2011
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Pulse polio drive to be held on Sunday

Staff Reporter

Thiruvananthapuram: The second round of this year's Intensive Pulse Polio Immunisation programme for eradicating polio will be held on February 27. The first round was completed on January 23.

As part of the Pulse Polio strategy, all children below the age of five years would be given an additional dose of oral polio vaccine on this day so as to prevent the transmission of the polio virus.

The State had not reported even a single case of polio since 2000. Wild polio virus is in circulation in States like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, from where a large number of cases are still being reported every year. Kerala will also have to follow the national strategy for polio eradication through additional immunisation because the chances of wild polio virus spreading here through the migrant population cannot be disputed.

The additional dose of oral polio vaccine will be administered to 30 lakh children below the age of five years in the State.

As during the first round of vaccination, the Health Department has arranged over 25,000 booths across the State for administering the vaccine. About 50,000 volunteers who have been given special training have also been recruited for the purpose. The programme will be supervised by 2,500 senior officials, apart from a host of district and State-level monitoring teams.

Polio booths will function from private and public sector hospitals, primary health centres, anganwadis, schools, railway stations, bus stations and airports and all prominent public places and tourist spots.

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