10% rise in number of kids at Pulse Polio camps

On Sunday, the first day of the nationwide Pulse Polio Immunisation camp 2018, a day after its official launch by President Ram Nath Kovind, saw a ten per cent rise in the number of children, below five years of age, who showed up compared to 2017.

A total of 6,49,000 children were given the "precious" drops at more than 8,000 centers across the Capital in just one day. The next few days, the teams of the Polio Cell of the Delhi State Health Mission will go to over 50 lakh households in the city to cover the remaining children under five. It is estimated that approximately 22 lakh children would be given the drops in Delhi alone.

"We have seen a rise in the number of children coming to the centers for the drops this time. Though the exact data will come out after five days, the numbers look good, so far," said Dr Anil Jagrat, Officer on Special Duty, Pulse Polio Cell, Delhi State Health Mission.

"A total of 22,000 manpower worked at centers in 70 assemblies from 9 am to 5 pm to make this successful. In Delhi, 600 vaccine routes were created for transportation," he added.

There were Polio camps at all the major public places from Metro Stations, inter-state bus terminals to popular sites like Akshardham temple.

India has not seen a Polio case since January 2011, but few cases have been reported in neighboring countries, and thus vaccination camps are also being carried out at international borders and any person traveling to Pakistan or Afghanistan, where cases were reported last year, is supposed to take the vaccination.