The National Pulse Polio Campaign will be conducted across all districts of Haryana from June 28 to 30.
In Karnal district, around 750 vaccination booths and nearly 1,500 door-to-door teams have been deployed to administer oral polio vaccine to 1,73,308 children in the 0-5 years age group, said Dr Poonam Chaudhary, Civil Surgeon, Karnal.
She said the campaign would be supervised by 146 supervisors. In addition, 73 mobile teams, including 16 transit teams, have been constituted to cover children on the move. A total of 3,296 employees and officers will participate in the campaign, and all necessary preparations have been completed.
She further said that there has been no polio case in Haryana since January 2010, and no polio case has been reported in India since January 2011. Therefore, India was declared polio-free on February 11, 2014.
However, neighbouring countries Pakistan and Afghanistan, are still reporting polio cases, which keeps the risk of polio in India alive, so polio eradication campaign is conducted repeatedly in India, she added.
To ensure that there is no polio case in India, people traveling outside India and coming into India are first given the polio vaccination. This time, more focus will be given on giving polio drops to children living in high-risk areas of the district such as brick kilns, ashrams, factories, rice mills, slum areas, and nomads because these places have a migratory population where the risk of polio spreading is highest. The last polio case in Haryana in 2010 and the last polio case in India in 2011 was also from the migratory population, Dr Chaudhary said.
Deputy Civil Surgeon Dr Shashi Garg said polio booths have been set up at all railway stations and bus stands so that children coming from outside can also receive polio drops and Haryana can continue to remain polio-free. “Since no polio case has been reported in India since 2011, we now need to strengthen our polio surveillance system even more so that no polio case comes to India from any other country,” she said.
All district residents are requested to ensure that all children aged 0 to 5 years receive polio drops, Civil Surgeon said.
For the smooth implementation of this programme, an initial meeting was already held in the starting of June month at the Mini Secretariat by the Deputy Commissioner, in which he gave necessary instructions to all department heads. Besides, the Civil Surgeon has already instructed the in-charges of health institutions of the Health Department Karnal to review preparations for the successful implementation of the programme.
