As many as 1,57,647 children below the age of five in the district will be targeted as part of the National Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme to be held in the district on February 19 and April 1.
A total of 346 children below five years of age from among the migrant population of 3,682 in the district will be specially targeted as part of the programme. District collector, Sourabh Jain told reporters here on Friday that 1,525 booths have been set up in the district to administer oral polio drops to children on February 19. This will be followed up by visits to houses and administering oral polio drops to those who missed the drops on February 19, in the next two days.
G. Sudhakaran, MLA will inaugurate the programme in the district at a function to be held at Government Women and Child Hospital, Beach here on February 19. The booths include 47 transit booths set up in major railway stations, bus stations and boat jetties and 30 mobile booths.
About 3200 volunteers will be assisting the administration of polio drops in the district. Kerala has a chance of attack of disease due to the presence of large number of people from West Bengal, where polio was last reported in the country in January 2011. Also, presence of large number of people with polio in negihbouring countries of Pakistan and Bangladesh makes India vulnerable.
A total of 171 supervisors with one supervisor for every 10 booths and programme officers for overall supervision of the district have been appointed for the purpose. The district collector said that KSEB has been instructed not to have power cuts in areas where the polio vaccines were being stored in refrigerators. Vehicles have been allotted to take the vaccines to booths even in the remotest of areas in the district.
A road show for giving publicity to the programme has been going on in Ambalapuzha and other coastal areas of the district. A control room for coordinating the programme will be operating at the District Medical Office (Ph: 2251650, 2252329).
District coordinator, National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), Dr. L. Manoj said that a total of 13.5 lakh units has been allotted to the district for the programme which has been distributed among the hospitals in the district for vaccines and publicity of the programme. Deputy District Medical Officer, Dr. Vivek also attended the press conference.
