UP plans more vaccinations

[Guest guest]

And now they will be infusing many other vaccines into childs body in

addition to oral polio.

 

Regards

Puneet

 

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UP rolls out comprehensive healthcare plan to curb polio

Yoga Rangatia | New Delhi

 

Just as rest of the country, people in Uttar Pradesh are tired of

polio. They do not understand why for the past decade their children

are being given oral polio drops several times a year. Besides

fighting the battle against the virus that has made the State its

home, the administration is looking at ways to lure people to the

camps all over again. The State is now learning to harp less on polio

and more on overall health package for the family.

 

" There is fatigue among workers and people to bring children to polio

camps. We are now looking at ways to bring the excitement back in the

campaign. One of the ways is to organise health camps for the entire

family. Health services are so poor that people flock these camps.

Polio will be one of the health services at these camps. We are

focusing more on polio-endemic area for the present, " said UP Health

Secretary Arun Mishra.

 

The State team lead by Health Minister Ahmed Hasan were here to attend

the emergency meeting on polio called by the Centre. UP has seen

resurgence of polio this year with 270 cases.

 

Most of the polio cases are children who have taken several rounds of

vaccine earlier, but not enough. Abysmall hygiene and nutrition

standards only precipitated the issue.

 

After the outbreak, the State is forced to look at its routine

immunisation plans. " People don't understand why their children do not

get medical aid for diseases like diarrhea, measles, tetanus and

diphtheria while on the other hand a health worker insists on polio

drop. Naturally, there is suspicion in their minds, most of them are

just too tired about the campaign. We have to enthuse the entire

community all over again, " Mishra said.

 

The State has been blamed for poor health management for polio in

particular and health services in general. And army of three lakh

workers are deployed to administer polio and yet as many as 15 per

cent of the children are missed each time. There is poor consistency

of coverage of polio.

 

After the cases started rising in May, the State put in place a

three-tier system to monitor the programme. " When the first team of

volunteer reports a missed child, we try to find out why she was

missed. A team comprising local resource person, who also motivates

the community, goes to quell their fears and brings the child for

immunisation. The situation has now improved. A better monitoring

system is now put in place, " Mishra said.