A total of 61,241 children were immunised on the first day of three day Sub-national immunisation day (SNID) pulse polio vaccination drive in Mohali district today. The target is to administer drops to 1,60,455 children in the age group of 0-5 years.
Civil Surgeon Dr. Adarshpal Kaur, Deputy Director Dr. Nisha Sahi and District Immunisation Officer Dr Girish Dogra launched the three-day campaign from Balongi in the morning and also visited other places including Kharar and inspected the drive.
Dr Adarshpal Kaur divulged that around 38 percent of the target has been achieved today. Giving out details, Dr Adarshpal said a total of 1254 teams including 1100 house to house teams were constituted across the district to ensure the success of the drive.
As part of the vaccination campaign, health workers will visit houses, railway stations, bus stands, brick kilns, slums etc. each day. ‘A total of 2508 vaccinators have been pressed into service. The teams include doctors, ANMs, LHVs,Health Inspectors, Health Workers, ASHA workers and students from nursing colleges.
The teams would visit a total of 4,11,710 houses and other places in the district. To ensure that all children are immunized, a total of 120 supervisors will carry out sudden checks at various places.” said Dr Adarshpal.
Notably, Mohali is the only district in the state where all the children below the age of 5 years are being covered whereas in the rest of the districts, children belonging to the migrant population only are being given the shots.
Dr Adarshpal Kaur appealed to the people to get their children vaccinated even if the child is born a few hours ago or is suffering from cough, cold, fever, diarrhea or any other disease. The anti-polio vaccine has no harmful effects in these sick children.
He said the country was already polio-free, however, the vaccination was must to sustain polio eradication from the country. On 27 March 2014, the world health organization (WHO) had declared India a polio free country.
Assistant Civil Surgeon Dr Renu Singh, Deputy Medical Commissioner Dr Daljeet Singh Pardesi, District Health Officer Dr Subash Kumar, Dr Akshay Kumar, Dr Harmandeep Kaur, all senior medical officers were among the senior health officials who visited various places in all the health blocks across the district to ensure smooth conduct of the drive.