The health authorities in the district are using all their resources to reach out to the 47,638 unimmunised children below seven years of age in an ongoing vaccination drive.
The 10-day drive being held with the support of the district panchayat is intended to bring total immunisation cover to the district.
The re-emergence of a few diphtheria cases at Vettathur and Kalambady in recent weeks had brought to focus the failure of the district in protecting its children from vaccine-prevented deadly diseases.
Some sections in the district were found to have been resisting the immunisation drive routinely conducted by the government.
Even when conducting the drive, health authorities said they would not impose immunisation on anyone. A meeting conducted by Health Department Secretary K. Elangovan here decided that all efforts would be made to educate those resisting immunisation.
The anti-immunisation campaign conducted by some groups will, however, be resisted strongly, said District Medical Officer V. Ummer Farook. He instructed all junior health inspectors to submit him weekly field reports on immunisation.
Dr. Elangovan said efforts would be made to educate the anti-immunisation campaigners. The health authorities would reach out to a large number of unimmunised children between age seven and 17 through their schools. They would be given TD vaccines at schools.
The district panchayat and the Health Department had sought the help of anganwadi workers for the immunisation drive.
A massive awareness drive would be launched in schools by involving the parent-teacher associations.
The government had ordered three lakh units of diphtheria vaccines. Dr. Elangovan said about half of them would be made available in a week.
