More than 17 crore children of less than five years across the country will be given polio drops as part of the drive of Government of India to sustain polio eradication from the country.
President Ram Nath Kovind launched the Pulse Polio programme 2019 on Saturday, after a postponement from the earlier February 3 date. On the eve of National Immunisation day, President administered polio drops to children less than five years old at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
"Along with Universal Immunisation Programme of the country, we have also launched Mission Indradhanush to accelerate our goal to achieve more than 90% full immunisation coverage. More than 3.39 crore children and 87 lakh pregnant women have been vaccinated through Mission Indradhanush drives. Strengthening of immunization programme has contributed significantly to the decline of Infant Mortality Rate from 39 in 2014 to 32 per 1000 live births in 2017.," said JP Nadda, Union Health Minister.
More than 17 crore children of less than five years across the country will be given polio drops as part of the drive of Government of India to sustain polio eradication from the country.
In January this year, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had issued a notice to all states to postpone the programme date, without suggesting a new date. While no reason was given by the MohFW for the postponement, it is speculated that it was due to the shut-down of the government authorised pharmaceutical company, Biomed.
In September 2018, a batch of Biomed's polio vaccine was found contaminated, after which the government had ordered the closure of the company. The contaminated oral vaccine, however, had been given to some children in Uttar Pradesh and Telangana.
It is suspected that following the shut-down, there was a shortage of oral vaccine and thus the programme had to be postponed.
Ministry had quoted in its order- "Due to unavoidable circumstances, it has been decided to postpone the programme, the rescheduled date for the said activity will be communicated in due course. As far as polio NID is concerned, the required quantity of bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV) has already been secured for the programme. However, to ensure availability of the safe and quality vaccine to our children during NID, the testing of bOPV is made more stringent," it had stated.
The Pulse Polio campaign was introduced by the government around 1995 as part of an initiative to reach a state of complete polio eradication. Following this, the last cases of polio were reported in 2011 in the country. After a three-year observation period, the World Health Organisation (WHO) granted India its 'polio-free' status. The vaccines, however, continue to be administered as a precautionary measure.
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