Even as the staff assigned to administer pulse polio in Mysuru district began their house-to-house visits on Monday, the Department of Health and Family Welfare said the pulse polio drive on Sunday achieved a coverage of 97.53 per cent.
Out of the targeted 2,31,354 children below five years of age in Mysuru district, a total of 2,25,629 children had been administered polio drops on Sunday at an estimated 1,650 booths, where 316 supervisors and 6,564 staff members were deputed.
In Mysuru Urban, a total of 85,945 children were administered the vaccine out of the targeted 88,844 children, achieving a coverage of 96.74 per cent. In Mysuru Rural, where there were 27,112 children were targeted, as many as 26,295 children were vaccinated, reaching a coverage of 96.99 per cent.
With the Mysuru District Health Officer M.P. Kumaraswamy expressing confidence that the coverage will be 100 per cent, teams of vaccinators have begun house-to-house visits from Monday to administer polio drops to children, who had been left out in Sunday’s pulse polio campaign.
The teams of vaccinators are expected to visit a total of 7,21,471 houses over the next three days.
Meanwhile, the Mysuru District Health and Family Welfare Society, in a statement, has pointed out that polio cases had been found in neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan during 2023.
Expressing concern over the six confirmed cases of polio each in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Mysuru District Health and Family Welfare Officer has emphasised the need to implement the pulse polio, general vaccination, and Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) surveillance in a responsible manner in view of the possibility of spread of the disease through migration.
The last instance of polio was detected in India in January 2011 and the World Health Organization (WHO) had certified the country as polio-free on March 27, 2014. To ensure that the future generations are not afflicted by polio, India has been continuing pulse polio programme.
The last case of polio in Karnataka was detected on November 3, 2007 in a group of migrants, the statement added.
The authorities have given an appeal to ensure that all children below five years of age are compulsorily immunised against polio. The polio drops should be administered even if the children had been immunised earlier, the statement added.
