BBMP achieves 94.33% polio vaccine coverage in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Sunday covered as much as 94.33 per cent in administering the polio vaccine to children under the age of 5 in the city with the highest turnout in the Dasarahalli zone at 97 per cent and the lowest in the South at 92 per cent. 

With a total population of 11,13,617 children between 0-5 years, the BBMP administered the polio vaccine to 1050348 children at various places including 145 urban primary health centres, 228 Namma Clinics, dispensaries, anganwadi centres, schools and bus stands including metro stations, parks, medical colleges and nursing homes. 

Inaugurating the vaccination drive, Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dinesh Gundu Rao said it is important to maintain India a polio-free country in the coming days. 

As part of National Immunisation Day on March 3, declared by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and India Expert Advisory Group (IEAG), Rao inaugurated the state-wide pulse polio immunisation drive by administering the first polio vaccine here at a Primary Health Centre in Kodandaramapuram near Malleswaram. 

Speaking at the opening day of the drive, he requested parents to ensure that their children are vaccinated against polio. 

Dr Naveen Bhat, Director of the National Health Mission (NHM), said there would be door-to-door visits to administer two drops of the polio oral vaccine to children between the ages of 0-5 for another two days till March 6. He informed that special focus will be given to children located in high-risk areas such as urban slums and the migrant population. 

“In this phase of the polio elimination programme, the deciding factor is preparing better IEC activities and good supervision,” Bhat said. 

The polio virus is of three serotypes with no onset of Type 2 and Type 3 cases since 1999 while being officially certified as polio eradicated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2015 and 2019, respectively.

India’s last reported case of the Wild Polio Virus was on January 13, 2011, in West Bengal’s Howrah district, while the only cases of polio occurring currently across the world are caused by Type 1.