Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal launched the first phase of National Pulse Polio Immunization Programme in the State by administering polio vaccine drops to children upto five years of age here today. On this occasion, he urged the people of the State to bring their children upto five years of age to nearest polio booths for administering polio drops.
He said that nearly seven lakh children would be administered polio vaccine through 6,000 polio booths in the first phase of pulse polio campaign in the State. He said that after the completion of this phase, health workers would visit every house to ensure that no child had been left out in the target age group. He said that in India no case of polio had been reported during past 13 months. He said that during the year 2010, 42 cases of pulse polio had been reported in the country, which came down to one in the year 2011. He said that in the State the last case of pulse polio had been reported in Nalagarh block of district Solan and the infected child belonged to migrant labourers. He termed it an achievement of Health Department that after 2009, no case of pulse polio had been reported in the State.
Prof. Dhumal said that the second phase of Pulse Polio Campaign would be launched in the month of April this year to ensure that all children in the target age group were administered polio drops in the State. He congratulated the Health Department for the successful implementation of pulse polio programme in the State and asked the officials to ensure that children of migrant labourers were also administered polio drops so as to eradicate this disease. He also emphasised upon the need to awareness campaigns so that families could be made educated about the cause. On this occasion, Chief Minister also flagged off the pulse polio immunization ambulance.
