Launching a special drive to tackle persistent prevalence of polio in the country, the Centre on Saturday said it would soon introduce an oral polio vaccine to tackle certain strains of the paralysing disease.
“Government is committed to wipe out polio from the country and in this national and international organisations, state governments and general public will have to work in a concerted manner,” Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said.
He said the government will soon introduce a bi—valent oral polio vaccine to attack the type I and type III virus.
He also envisaged a registry of immunised children which can be verified centrally.
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and West Bengal figure in the special drive.
So far, this year, 568 cases have been reported as compared to 559 last year. Western Uttar Pradesh is witnessing a sharp rise in type III cases (427 cases out of total 454 cases in the state).
Bihar is another focus area where there are 68 cases out of total 103 cases from the type III strain.
UP and Delhi will have seven sub—national immunisation days in addition to the usual national days whereas Bihar will have eight additional immunisation days.
In Uttar Pradesh and Bihar the special drive will cover children in urban slums and street children.
