New Delhi, Feb 26: Since neighboring countries are still not polio free, India needs to remain vigilant and continue with its vaccination program against the disease, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Saturday highlighted the door-to-door vaccination campaign. inserted. It will be conducted to ensure that no one is left behind.
The Minister, who launched the National Polio Vaccination Campaign for 2022 by administering polio to children below five years of age in the Health Ministry, said that in the coming months, more than 15 crore children below the age of five will be vaccinated against the disease. will be imposed.
“India's strategic fight against polio is a success story of the country's public health policy against vaccine-preventable diseases. We need to be vigilant and ensure that every child below the age of five is immunized against polio.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Universal Immunization Program is focusing on protecting children from diseases more than ever before and introduced several new vaccines such as Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV), Rotavirus Vaccine and Measles-Rubella (MR) Huh. vaccine in recent days, Mandaviya said.
Apart from this, to provide additional protection to children, the government has also included Injectable Inactivated Polio Vaccine in its routine immunization programme.
"While we are making efforts to protect our children from as many diseases as possible, it is important that all vaccines under the program reach every child in our country," the minister said.
Emphasizing on the importance of celebrating National Immunization Day, he said, “The goal of Swasth Bharat can be achieved only when our children are healthy. Mission Indradhanush or Polio Vaccination Campaign aims to save our children from such deadly diseases. Since our Neighboring countries are still not polio free, so we must be vigilant and continue the immunization programme. More than 150 million children under the age of five will be vaccinated in the coming months. Strong enough to not miss anyone Door to door vaccination campaign will be carried out through micro planning.I congratulate all health workers, stakeholders like WHO, UNICEF, Rotary Club and NGOs for making this vaccination program a public participation movement as envisaged by our Prime Minister. I request all the families to come forward to get their children vaccinated.”
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan highlighted the achievements and the way in which the National Immunization Program has been implemented.
“Even though India is polio free, it is our responsibility to remain vigilant. Transit teams have been deployed in all states to ensure vaccination and pulse polio is being implemented continuously at borders as our neighboring countries are still reporting polio cases,” he said.
Polio National Immunization Day 2022 (NID) will be organized across the country on Sunday (27 February).
India organizes one nationwide NID and two sub-national vaccination days (SNID) for polio every year to maintain population immunity against wild poliovirus and maintain polio free status. During Polio NID, more than 15 crore children will be covered in 735 districts of all 36 states and union territories.
During the campaign, children will be given polio medicine through seven lakh booths across the country.
Around 23.6 crore houses will be visited by about 24 lakh volunteers and 1.5 lakh supervisors. (PTI)