Indore: 80% of targeted kids receive two drops of life

• Among 5,60,000  children below 5-yr age in district 4,08,247 administered vaccine at 3,900 booths
• Health activists to reach every doorstep to administer drops to those who missed first phase for next two days

Indore: Aimed at immunising kids from polio and thus eradicating the disease from country, first phase of the year’s pulse polio campaign was launched across district on Sunday.

Children below five years of age were covered in the first day of the campaign launched at booth level. According to acting chief medical and health officer (CMHO) Dr Praveen Jadia, the department was entrusted with a target of administering polio drops to 5,60,000 children in the district and it has achieved 80 per cent of the mark on the very first day of the campaign.

The campaign was inaugurated by regional director Dr Laxmi Baghel at CMHO office who administered two drops of life to children in the morning to begin the day.

“As many as 4,08,247 children were administered polio drops at 3,900 booths set up by us with the help of paramedical and nursing students, and our health activists. Now, in the next two days, the activists will reach every door step to administer drops to those who couldn’t reach the booth on Sunday,” Dr Jadia said.

The acting CMHO further enlightened that “Vaccination against polio started in the country in 1978 with Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI). The last reported cases of wild polio in India were in West Bengal and Gujarat on January 13, 2011. On 27 March 2014, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared India a polio free country, since no cases of wild polio has been reported since then.”