Maha govt to focus on 'bivalent' polio vaccination

Union health minister Gulam Nabi Azad today said that the government would now focus on 'bivalent' polio vaccination starting with Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Launching Pune district's polio eradication drive, Azad said the fresh anti-polio vaccination drive would give protection against P1 and P3 strains of the virus as P2 had now become extinct in India.

The minister also paid a visit to National Institute of Virology (NIV), here, the main referral centre for H1N1 testing in the region hit by swine flu pandemic and reviewed its work.

The NIV director Dr AV Mishra made a presentation outlining the research projects undertaken by the scientific community in the institute.