On the occasion of the National Immunisation Day, a polio eradication drive was launched by health department officials on Sunday. As part of the drive, a polio booth was set up where children below five years of age were administered oral vaccination. Officials said that from Monday, health department staff will carry out the door-to-door exercise of providing polio drops to 5.34 lakh children in Meerut district.
Dr Raj Kumar Chaudhary, Meerut's chief medical officer, said, "We have a target of giving the oral vaccine to 5.34 lakh children of less than five years. The drive will go on for a month until February end. During this period, health workers will visit houses and give polio vaccine to kids."
There are 1,300 polio booths in the district — with at least three health workers posted at each one of them. These 3,900 workers, including auxiliary nurse midwives (ANM), will go from door to door to give polio drops to young children.
"If some children are not covered in the drive, the campaign will be further extended," said Dr Chaudhary.
Meanwhile, efforts are being made in the district to keep a check on wild poliovirus too. As part of the routine environmental surveillance to detect presence of the wild poliovirus, sewage samples are being collected twice every month and sent to the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in Delhi.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/