JK Minister launches pulse polio immunization campaign
Jammu, January 19, (Scoop News)-Minister of State for Health, Shabir Ahmed Khan on Sunday launched a round of pulse polio immunization campaign 2014 at KondMohalaDalgate, Srinagar this morning by administering pulse polio drops to new-born and other infants.
On his return to Jammu this afternoon, the Health Minister straight way drew to Sarwal where he also administered pulse polio drops to 4 children including one newborn at Government Hospital,Sarwal.
Member Legislative Assembly, Prof ChamanLal, Director Family Welfare, Dr. Baldiv Sharma, Mission Director, NRHM, Dr. Yash Pal Sharma, Chief Medical Officer, Jammu, Dr. JavidBakishi were among others present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, the Health Minister said that over 19.50 lakh children are being administered pulse polio drops through 11,477 booths established across the state in the first phase of the campaign.
The Minister said 45,370 trained personnel have been deployed to man the polio booths as also undertake door-to-door campaign with 315 mobile and 298 transit teams. He said for the purpose, 25 lakh pulse polio doses (vaccines) have been kept available at the hospitals and designated booths in both the divisions of the state.
The Minister said this campaign will continue for another two days by way of house-to-house activity to trace and administer polio drops to the children left out on the first day of the round. He said it should be ensured that the children of snow-bound areas like Guraz, Machal and Karnah, Zanskar, Drass, Numa in Kashmir division and Padder, Warwan and remote and snow-bound areas of Rajouri, Poonch, Bani in Jammu division are covered by extending the drive for two to three days more in these areas.
Shabir said that special focus would be paid to sensitive areas like slums, isolated hutments, brick kilns, floating or migrating population and construction sites so that no child is left uncovered in these areas.
Sounding a note of caution for parents, the Health Minister advised them to strictly follow the vaccination schedule to keep their children disease free, adding that “Once couples become parents, they should be aware about the vaccination schedules and take their children to get immunized on time against the deadly disease polio.”
The Minister said that “the pulse polio programme has been very effective in minimizing the polio cases. We have been able to curtail this menace only because of constant and excellent efforts of the government”.
“The State in fact had not recorded a single polio case since 2010, thanks to the pulse polio immunization programme and high quality preparedness and monitoring during the National Immunization Days”, he added.
The Minister said that “our large investments in the Health sector are yielding results. Health indicators such as infant mortality rate and fertility rate has showed continuous decline. The number of institutional deliveries has gone up”. He said that no wild polio case has been reported since January 2011 in the Country and World Health Organization has removed India from the list of polio-endemic Countries.
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