Anti-polio drive to be carried out in single phase next year

The pulse polio immunisation drive 2019 will be carried out in a single phase on February 3, according to K. Kulanthaisamy, Director, Public Health and Preventive Medicine.

Speaking at a polio immunisation orientation seminar and planning workshop organised by the India National Polio Plus Committee of Tamil Nadu Health Services and Rotary International District 3000 here on Sunday, Mr. Kulanthaisamy said the drive, which had so far been conducted in two phases a year, had been restricted to a day in 2019. It meant that the parents might not get a second chance to administer polio drops to theirchildren if they failed to bring them to the polio immunisation camps on February 3.

It had added responsibility to all stakeholders including Rotary and service organisations. Awareness must be created among the people to make use of the pulse polio immunisation drive, he pointed out.

Mr. Kulanthaisamy said there were three types of polio disease. Of them, type-3 and type-2 had been eradicated in the world. Type-1 had been completely eradicated in the country. A few case of type-1 polio cases had surfaced in terror-affected areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Tamil Nadu had been a torch-bearer for eradication of polio cases. Service and voluntary organisations had taken a lead role in creating awareness among the people for more than 2 decades.

He said the State government had been implementing vaccination programme for 10 communicable diseases in association with the National Immunisation Programme. So far, it had been covered in 10 districts in the State. The coverage of the immunisation programme had been increased to three more districts from the current year.

R.V.N. Kannan, Rotary district Governor, A. Zameer Pasha, A.L. Chokkalingam, past Rotary district Governors and others spoke.