By IANS
Kendrapada (Orissa) : Cases of failed polio immunisation surfaced in Orissa Monday when the district administration here gave wheel chairs to the polio-affected children even as their parents claimed the children were given full polio drops.
The function was organised in the district of Kendrapada, 150 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, to mark the World Disability Day Dec 3.
Rebani Khan, a four-year-old, is affected by polio on both his legs. “We were regularly administering him the polio doses,” the boy’s father Nemaji Khan told IANS.
“I and my wife approached doctors of the district government hospital at Kendrapada umpteen times and urged them to provide proper treatment to my son. But they did not pay any attention,” Nemaji alleged.
The other children affected by polio are Dipak Kumar Jena (9), Sujata Sutar(9), Mita Sahani (9), Arun Mallick (8), S. Erfani (9), and Salama Begum (9).
The parents alleged that their children had been administered the doses but the vaccines were ineffective as they were not stored at the required temperature.
The children are not only facing life-long disability but are being also socially ostracised.
“Many villagers believe polio is a water-borne disease and they have stopped taking water from our house,” Nemaji said.
“Many villagers do not come to our house after my son was affected with polio,” said Amulaya Mallick, father of Arun who had to drop out of school because of the disability.
“We will depute a medical team soon to examine all the seven cases”, the district’s Chief Medical Officer Usharani Tripathy said.
India has nearly a third of all polio cases in the world despite massive immunisation efforts.