In National Immunization Day, in all of the districts across Chhattisgarh, over 95 percent children in the age group of 0 to 5 years took two drops of bivalent oral polio vaccine here on Sunday. In all of the districts, local Member of Parliament, Member of Legislative Assembly, district magistrate, superintendent of police and CEO of Zila Panchayat administered the polio drops at one of the polio booth centers and encouraged all parents to visit nearby booth centers with their children below the age of five years where vaccinators administer the drops to the children on the occasion of National Immunization Day. It may be mentioned here that, the immunisation section of Chhattisgarh Department of Health and Family Welfare has setup 14,390 booths, 2,8791 teams and 57,000 vaccinators to ensure no child is missed. The main objective of this drive was to administer two drops of bivalent oral polio vaccine to all eligible children across 33 districts of Chhattisgarh in the age group of 0 to 5 years.

 

In all districts with the support of district magistrate, superintendent of police and other officials, health department has successfully administrated the two drops of pulse polio and apart from urban areas, in rural areas too, a large number of parents arrived in booths with their children to administer polio drops. Dr V R Bhagat, State Immunization Officer informed that around 94% to 95% children below the age of 20 years took the polio drops. For remaining 5% to 6% missing children, the department will conduct door-to-door campaign in June 29 and 30. There, the team will identify the missing children and administer two drops of pulse polio. Though India has remained polio-free for more than 15 years and Chhattisgarh for more than 24 years, Dr Bhagat stated that risk importation continues as wild poliovirus transmission is still being reported from endemic countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. The detection of wild poliovirus in environmental surveillance outside endemic regions has once again reminded the global community that no country is fully safe until polio is eradicated everywhere.