Tamil Nadu - Salem   

Pulse polio campaign will be strengthened: Union Minister

SALEM: The Union Ministry of Health has decided to strengthen the awareness campaign on the pulse polio immunisation programme in the country so that 100 per cent coverage of children could be ensured against the scourge both at the urban and rural levels.

Detailing the strategy, Union Minister of State for Health Panabaka Lakshmi, talking to The Hindu here on Sunday, said that the Ministry was aware of the situation in Tamil Nadu where rumours about the efficacy of polio drops had played a spoilsport during the first phase of the pulse polio campaign.

The Ministry, she said, had issued a series of instructions to its women health workers working in remote villages under the National Rural Health Mission to take up the job of sensitising parents to the need for administering this oral vaccine. “The primary job of around 6.5 lakh ASHAs, (Accredited Social Health Activists), is to educate and create awareness among the people about health and immunisation,” she said. “They have been asked to intensify the same in Tamil Nadu,” she said.

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Pulse polio campaign will be strengthened: Union Minister

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