Ludhiana, December 7
The detection of a polio case in the city a couple of days back has not only dashed the hopes of Punjab to be declared a polio-free state in the near future, but the health administration is also facing stumbling blocks in the way of the proposed mop up polio vaccination drive from December 11 to 13 in Ludhiana and some of the surrounding districts.
The department needs more than 8,000 volunteers and supervisors to man some 2,100 odd polio booths all over the district, including 900 in the city, whereas at its own, it can only muster around 2,000 nursing, para-medical and other field staff. Normally, the shortfall is filled up by volunteers taken from government schools, private health institutions, nursing students and other NGOs.
However, the government schools in the district have terminal examinations scheduled to commence from December 10 and it will not be possible for the government teachers to be spared for polio vaccination if the examinations were not put off by a few days.
Realising the gravity of the situation and the pressing need to launch vaccination drive without any further loss of time, the state Health Department has deployed Dr Y.R. Markan, Director, Punjab Health Systems Corporation, to supervise the entire operation. Dr Markan, who took charge Monday evening here, will also act as the officiating Civil Surgeon in the absence of Dr Rajinder Kaur, who is on leave.
Interacting with mediapersons late Monday evening, Dr Markan stressed that the department would need to motivate more and more NGOs, service clubs, social and religious institutions to provide volunteers for the immunisation of 5.25 lakh children in the age group of 0-5 years against polio. The senior government officials and the district authorities, he said, were also being approached to get the school examinations postponed for a few days so that sufficient number of volunteers were available to be deployed on polio booths.
Dr Markan admitted that as far the elimination of polio in the state was concerned, the situation was back to square one. The last case of polio in Punjab was reported in 2002 and like the one detected last week in Ludhiana, the victim was again a migrant from Chattarpur district in Madhya Pradesh. “With no case having been reported for the past three years, it would have taken us another two years to get Punjab declared a polio-free state. However, we have to start from the scratch once again and continue polio vaccination for another five years at a huge expense.”
He said since both polio cases reported from the state were those of migrant children, matter would be taken up at the appropriate level with the Union Government to strengthen the polio immunisation programme in other states as well lest the efforts of Punjab in this direction should come to naught once again. Dr Markan strongly supported the idea of all migrant families carrying a vaccination chart of their children with them and reporting to their nearest government health centre immediately after their arrival to Punjab.
Meanwhile, the district level task force for mop up polio vaccination drive, which met here on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner Anurag Verma, chalked out the detailed programme for the three-day operation.
Giving details, Mr Verma informed that in all, 8,800 persons were being deployed for the pulse polio campaign, which included around 6,600 volunteers from the Education Department and NGOs. In addition to setting up booths in different localities in the city and rural areas, 70 mobile teams would be put in place and another 96 transit posts would be established at bus stands and the railway station in the district to ensure 100 per cent coverage of eligible children.
According to the Deputy Commissioner, on the first day (December 11), pulse polio drops would be administered at the booths while the volunteers would go from door to door on December 12 and 13 to cover the remaining children. He made a fervent appeal to the people to lend their support to the drive and ensure that all eligible children received pulse polio drops.
