NAWANSHAHR: With a view to save the children in the age group of 0-5 years, Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr. Balbir Singh kickstarted a three-day Polio immunization campaign from Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district Hospital on Sunday.
He said that the immunisation drive has set a target of administering polio drops to 14.83 lakh Children in the age group of 0-5 years from May 28 to May 30 across 12 districts of Punjab including Amritsar, Bathinda, Faridkot, Fazilka, Fatehgarh Sahib, Mansa, Sri Muktsar Sahib, Moga, Pathankot, Patiala, SBS Nagar and TarnTaran.
The Health Minister himself administered polio immunisation drops to a child at District Hospital Nawanshahr. Stressing upon the importance of the Polio vaccination campaign, Dr. Balbir Singh said that although no wild polio virus case has been reported since 2010 and previous case of polio was reported in October 2009 in Ludhiana but still Punjab is at a high risk of polio virus importation from its neighbouring endemic countries especially Pakistan and Afghanistan. This is the reason Polio campaigns are being periodically undertaken in the state. The risk of importation of Polio virus assumes more significance as the highest number of polio cases in the last few years have been reported from the neighbouring country Pakistan, he added.
Transit teams have already been established at Attari Border to ensure vaccination of individuals crossing the Indo-Pak border. Similarly, vaccination sites are established at Dera Baba Nanak, District Gurdaspur checkpoint on opening up the Kartarpur corridor, he added.
He said that for the successful execution of the campaign, as many as 7054 booths have been set up while 13136 Door to Door teams, 334 Mobile Teams and 279 Transit Teams have been formed, besides deploying a total of 27109 vaccinators. 1335 supervisors will oversee the work of the vaccinators. The teams will also visit 5109 High Risk Areas which include 2107 Slums, 132 Construction sites 902 Nomadic sites, 132 Brick kilns and 729 other sites.
He was accompanied by MLAs Mrs Santosh Kataria and Dr Nachhattar Pal, District Planning Committee Chairman Satnam Jalalpur, Improvement Trust Nawanshahar Chairman Satnam Singh Jalwaha, Director Health Dr Adarsh Pal Kaur, Director Family Welfare Dr Ravinder Pal Kaur, SDM Major (Dr) Shivraj Singh Bal and Civil Surgeon Dr Jaspreet Kaur.