The Pulse Polio Immunisation (PPI) programme was conducted successfully all over the district on Sunday. District Medical and Health Officer P.S. Suryanarayana said 97.2% of targeted 4,81,517 children from zero to five years of age were administered polio drops. Greater Viasakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) Commissioner G. Srijana got the polio drops administered to her son as part of the programme at China Waltair Urban Health Centre on Sunday.
She urged all parents, with children in the target age group (0-5 years), to get the drops administered to their children. Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Development Region Authority (VMRDA) Commissioner Koteswara Rao and his wife also got the drops administered to their son.
Dr. Suryanarayana appealed to all parents not to neglect drops this year as they had already got their children vaccinated in earlier years. Polio cases have been reported in neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan last year and hence, there was every need to take the drops this year also, he said.
In the past, the polio drops used to be administered twice a year but this year, it was being given only once. A total of 3,786 polio vaccination centres, 123 transit centres and 168 mobile centres were set up for the vaccination programme.
The drops would be administered to target group children, who missed out taking the drops, through house visits in the rural and Agency areas on Monday and Tuesday. “Those who were missed out in the GVMC limits will also be identified and administered the drops,” Dr. Suryanarayana said.