Gandhinagar, June 28 (IANS). Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel launched the statewide pulse polio vaccination campaign in Gandhinagar. Under this campaign, a target has been set to administer polio vaccine to more than 83.72 lakh children aged 0 to 5 years in the state. To make the campaign successful, 33,489 polio booths have been set up across the state, where 1,33,956 health workers will provide their services.
On the first day of the campaign, children are being given polio medicines at the booths, while health department teams will also go door-to-door to give medicines to those children who due to some reason could not reach the booths. Apart from this, access to children will also be ensured through mobile units and transit points.
Gujarat Government Minister Praful Pansheriya, while talking to journalists, said that this three-day campaign started under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel is an effort to reach every eligible child of the state. He said that polio vaccine will be administered to all children between 0 to 5 years so that Gujarat remains polio free.
He told that this campaign will run for three days. Since 2007, not a single case of polio has been found in Gujarat. The Health Department team is taking this campaign forward with complete rules and planning. The health department team is treating children of people in cities, villages and huts for polio. More than 83 lakh children are to be given polio in three days.
Health Minister Praful Pansheriya said that we have planned that no child should be left without taking polio vaccine. I thank all the employees of the Health Department, whose efforts are making this possible.
The district administration said that thousands of health workers have been deployed to monitor and effectively implement the vaccination campaign. At the same time, a special follow-up system has also been made to identify the missing children and give them medicines. Under this, dedicated teams will conduct door-to-door surveys and no eligible child will be left deprived of vaccination.
The Health Department and the District Administration have appealed to all the parents to take their children up to five years of age to the nearest polio booth and get them vaccinated. If a child is unable to drink the medicine on the first day, the home health team will administer polio drops to him.
–IANS
SAK/PM
