Second phase of pulse polio immunization campaign successful

The second phase of the Intensive Pulse Polio Immunization campaign was held yesterday. Unofficial statistics suggests that over 4.5 lakh children in Chennai were administered the polio drops. The last phase was held in February. We are still waiting for numbers from the rest of the country.

Over two lakh government employees and health workers coordinated together to make this possible. Thought the official numbers aren't out yet but as many as 72 lakh children across the state received the drops. Considering that just about 70 lakh children were administered the immunization drops on February 19, the increased number shows that most of them have received the follow up drop while more children have been reached.

In thefirst phase over 17 crore children were administered the drop. The drops were administered at all government hospitals, Primary Health Centres, block level dispensaries and even in places like bus stands, railway stations and markets.

Thanks to increased accessibility and better awareness, a large queue of parents and children turned up for the polio immunization shots.40,000 booths were set up across the state. This has been an annus mirabilis for India as far as the fight against polio was concerned. There wasn't a single wild polio case in the entire country,a suspected case recently turned out to be acute flaccid paralysis (AFP). WHO took India off the polio endemic list and this achievement was lauded around the world.

During previous national immunization day, nearly 2.3 million vaccinators under the direction of 155,000 supervisors visited 209 million homes to administer the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) to around 172 million children under five years of age across the country.

To reach the migratory population, mobile vaccination teams immunised children at railway stations, inside running trains, at bus stands, market places and construction sites. The end result was 900 million children were given OPV doses last year.

The government is partnered in its fight by WHO's National Polio Surveillance Project (NPSP), Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Unicef, as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.