City stands testament to Polio eradication

Big response to Pulse Polio programme. School students act as volunteers in several places. Next three days will see door-to-door campaign.

India has marked three years since its last polio case was reported. This puts the country on course to being formally declared Polio-free in March by the World Health Organisation. The aggressive Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme conducted in the city on Sunday, indicates how a huge country like ours, has been able to eradicate the disease, which is a major milestone. Health Minister Kondru Murali Mohan launched the programme at Chintal Basti Primary Health Centre. Mayor Majid Hussain administered the polio drops to children at Sayednagar Urban Health Centre.

Though the Old City lags behind in a lot of things, it observed 80 per cent turnout for the administration of Polio drops. More than 200 people turned out at Venkat Rao School at Lal Darwaza, over 300 people brought their children to the VDP School in Shalibanda and about 250 attended the programme in a hospital at Syed Ali Chabutra. People have become more aware and attentive is the observation made by the volunteers. "Earlier we had to go to places and force people to administer Polio dose to their children. But this year, they came by themselves," said the hospital staffer at Syed Ali Chabutra.

At booths in government schools, class 9 and 10 students were picked up and trained. The ones who were able to grasp the inputs well, were selected to run the booths and deliver the dosage to children.

“We like to do this as a social service and it feels good to work for a cause. Other than that, we are given Rs 75 a day and Rs 250 for three days for volunteering, which serves as pocket money,” said Deepika, a school student. Not only were the students running the booths, they also went around the neighbourhoods calling people to bring in their children for administering the vaccine. In places like Kapra, Domalguda and Yellareddyguda, this tactic worked, as people were not aware where the closest immunisation booth was located.

Not just schools, even nursing students from the Osmania General Hospital were put into overdrive. They were asked to travel along with the mobile vans to ensure that people who lived in remote places were administered a dose. From Monday, the eradication drive will not be limited to the booths. The officials will indulge in a door-to-door activity on January 20, 21 and 22 for administering the vaccine to children who did not make it to the booths. This drive will specifically focus on slums and remote places.

A notable feature of Sunday’s immunisation programme was that all the civic bodies worked in unison. For example, the APTRANSCO provided uninterrupted power supply to all the polling booths. Power supply was necessary because the vaccine had to be constantly maintained at a temperature between 20 and 80 Celsius. All the polling booths were also equipped with proper cold-chain equipment like domestic refrigerators, deep freezers, cold boxes and ice packs.