HT Correspondent
HAFLONG, Sept 16: The children between the age group of 0 to 5 years will be administered oral polio vaccine in the polio booths in Dima Hasao district for three days i.e from September 18 to 20 next.
A meeting regarding administering polio vaccine for three days was conducted at the office chamber of North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council. Principal secretary, Thai Tsho Daulagupu, ACS was present as chairman of the meeting. NCHAC deputy secretary in-charge medical Rebecca Changsan, ACS was also present during the meeting along with joint director of Health Services, Dima Hasao Dr. Kalpana Kemprai, Dr. L. Veiphai and other officials.
Briefing about the micro plan to be conducted in the district, Dr. Merina Changsan, district immunisation officer said that 28,204 children below 5 years are estimated to be given the polio immunisation of which 5044 children are in urban and 23, 160 in rural areas.
Dr. Changsan further informed that India, along with 10 other countries in the South-East Asia Region of WHO, was certified polio-free on 27th March 2014. The last case of polio in the country was reported on January 13, 2011 from Howrah, West Bengal. And globally, polio is still endemic in two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Though India has been certified “polio-free”, the risk of wild poliovirus importation or the emergence of vaccine-derived polioviruses persists until global eradication, which highlights the need for maintaining high population immunity and sensitive surveillance in the country.
This immunisation drive will be carried out by 2196 booth workers which will include ASHAs, Anganwadi workers, etc., and also teachers wherever necessary. In Dima Hasao, there are 558 numbers of booths to administer the programme apart from house visits by the officials
