By IANS,
New Delhi : With 372 cases of polio reported this year, the disease continues to spread unabated in India and the Delhi government said it will launch another round of the immunisation drive Sunday.
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said though the capital city has reported two cases including one P1 (the deadliest form of polio) case, efforts are on to make the city polio free.
She administered a polio vaccine drops to few children at her residence and said that over two million children will be administered vaccine Sunday.
The state government has set up 7,500 polio booths to administer polio vaccine children below the age of five. Around 30,000 health workers and volunteers will carry out the drive from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. across the city Sunday.
The workers will administer vaccine at major public places like railway stations, bus terminals, major temples, Delhi Metro stations, Millennium Park, Zoo and outlets of McDonalds.
Apart from this, a door-to-door weeklong survey would also be conducted under search and immunization Pulse Polio Campaign. Around 17,000 workers in 8,600 teams would visit different colonies including slum clusters to administer vaccine to children who could not reach polio booths.
“Our government would ensure that no virus of polio could enter the territory of national capital. For making a strong nation, we must have strong children, which would only be possible with the success of Polio Programme,” Dikshit said.
Delhi initiated Pulse Polio Immunization programme in 1994 and launched house-to-house “Search and Immunization” in 1999.
In 2008, 372 cases have been reported at national level till date out of which 356 cases are of P3 (milder form of polio) wild and 17 cases are of P1 wild virus.