Make sure your children, who are below five years of age, get the pulse polio vaccination this Sunday when the nationwide pulse polio vaccination campaign will begin.
To help people locate the nearest vaccination booth in thier area, Health Minister Shivanand S. Patil launched the mobile application ‘Nearest Vaccination Centre Karnataka’ on Wednesday. People can download the app on their phones and access the location of four nearest booths in their area, he said.
64.86 lakh children
As many as 64.86 lakh children below five years of age are targeted to be covered under the vaccination drive against polio. There are 32,737 booths set up across the State where parents take their children for polio vaccination. As many as 51,972 teams have been formed comprising 1,10,351 vaccinators, the Minister told presspersons.
The drive between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. will include door-to-door outreach programmes. To help tourists, commuters and those in transit, the Health Department has also set up vaccination booths at railway stations, bus stops and the airport too. For those who miss out on March 10, there will be a mop up round from March 11 to March 13.
Although India’s last case of polio was recorded in January 2011 in Howrah district, West Bengal, and no cases have been reported here for the last seven years, the country is at risk as neighbouring countries Pakistan and Afghanistan still have the virus.
“We should not be complacent and continue routine immunisation and the pulse polio campaign. There is a need for vaccination till the global eradication of the virus,” the Minister added.
Only one round
This year, there will be only one round of the pulse polio immunisation campaign. Till now, the immunisation campaign was held in two phases every year. The decision on just one round was taken by the national technical advisory group on immunisation.
Monkey fever
Replying to queries, the Minister said a 30-bed hospital and laboratory would be set up in Sagar to check the outbreak of Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), also known as monkey fever.
