Polio dose administered to 1.60 lakh children in the city

Aurangabad, Jan 31:

The pulse polio vaccination campaign was organised in the city on Sunday. The polio vaccine was administered to around 1,60,843 children during the day. Children who couldn't be vaccinated on Sunday will be identified and given the vaccine through home visits on Monday.

The city has not seen a single case of polio in the last 21 years. The pulse polio immunisation camp is being implemented twice a year by the central government. The Aurangabad municipal corporation implements the campaign. In all, 678 booths were set up to give the vaccine to children in the age group of 0 to 5 years on Wednesday. Around 804 infants up to 1 month of age were given the dose. The target was to vaccinate 1.98 lakh children. The municipal health department informed that 81 per cent of children were vaccinated today. To make the campaign a success, 40 medical officers, 1890 staff, 136 supervisors were appointed. In all, 15 transit teams and 27 mobile teams were deployed at railway stations, bus stand, airport, malls and other places. There are 300 garbage collection rickshaws in the city. Awareness was spread on these rickshaws. The polio vaccination campaign was launched at 8 am from Cidco N-8. Polio nodal officer Dr G M Gaikwad, additional commissioner B B Nemane, Health officer Dr Nita Padalkar, Medical officer Dr Ujwala Bhamre, Dr Prerna Sankalecha, Dr Sima Bushra, Dr Mujib Syed of the World Health Organization were present.