The Union government has postponed the Pulse Polio immunisation drive planned to be held on February 3 in the State citing “unavoidable circumstances”. Kerala had earlier decided to do away with the intensified immunisation drive for those aged under five to mark this year’s National Immunisation Day.
Circular issued
A circular put out by the Immunisation Division of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on January 18 said the “rescheduled date for the said activity will be communicated in due course.” The campaign has been postponed in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh too.
Sources in the Health Department said Kerala had not been reporting polio cases for quite some time now. Officials are of the view that the children here are getting the benefits of the polio vaccine through routine immunisation.
Type 2 wild polio virus was eradicated from the country in 2016. The same year, Kerala introduced injectable inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) into its routine immunisation schedule, which gives protection against all three types of the polio virus.
Later, the State switched from trivalent oral polio vaccine, effective against type 1,2, and 3 of the polio virus, to bivalent oral polio vaccine, effective against type 1 and 3.
Immune to threat
The department believes that the local community is now more or less immune to the threat and the focus should be shifted to the migrant and transit population.
Booths
Booths will have to be set up at places such as railway stations, bus stations, airports, and bordering areas to target travellers and migrants who arrive here from other States. Staff from primary health centres in both States will have to be present at the checkpoints in bordering areas and they will have to ensure that the oral vaccination is not administered in both places.
Surveillance
The surveillance against acute flaccid paralysis, the common sign of acute polio, will be continued, the sources added.
