84 percent children in city safe from polio

BANGALORE: Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda formally launched the pulse polio programme on National Immunisation Day for Polio Eradication, by administering two drops of pulse polio on selected children at his home office ‘Krishna’ on Sunday. On the occasion, the CM congratulated the Department of Health and Family Welfare Services for effectively controlling the polio disease.From 2007, not a single case of polio has been reported in the State, which was the reflection of the efforts put in by the state government, he lauded.“All children in the age group of 0 to 5 years are to be given two rounds of trivalent oral polio vaccine.People can administer polio vaccine to their children many times and this will not harm children in any way.This is the first round of polio vaccine for this year and the driver will be again conducted on April 15,” said Sadanada Gowda.Apart from a systematic campaign to enlighten the people and persuade all families to get their children vaccinated with polio drops without fail, radio talks, jingles, frequent announcements, dialogue with experts, live phone-in programmes on the AIR, DD and other TV Channels besides dissemination of information through mobile services providers were carried out.The education institutions, medical colleges, nursing colleges, local bodies and NGOs were roped in to ensure the success of the pulse polio immunisation campaign.The communication gap between the Department of Health and Family Welfare and BBMP resulted in a loss of about `20 lakh, as the civic body had advertised in media that the second phase of Pulse Polio would commence on April 1.When asked about the loss and communication gap, BBMP commissioner M K Shankarlinge Gowda said, “We are not concerned about the loss, as it the matter of health.We would again communicate about the change of date for second round, as the delay was due to the nonavailability of stock at central government level.”