The sub-national immunisation round of pulse polio 2013-14 was launched on Sunday in 13 districts of Haryana with nearly 15 lakh children (below 5 years) being administered polio drops at special booths on the first day of the three-day campaign.
The 13 districts are - Ambala, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Jhajjar, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Mewat, Palwal, Panchkula, Panipat, Rohtak, Sonepat and Yamunanagar.
A spokesperson for the health department said that about 57% of the targeted children had been covered on the first day of the campaign.
He said that the campaign would continue for another two days as teams would go from house to house to administer polio drops to those children who were not covered on Sunday.
In order to smoothly carry out the campaign, 10,573 booths were set up in the state and were manned by nearly 42,000 health officials, volunteers, anganwari workers and accredited social health activists.
Nearly, 2,100 officials supervised the activity apart from independent monitors of the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak, and World Health Organisation (WHO).
The activity was preceded by undertaking an awareness campaign. Nearly 26 lakh children are to be covered during this campaign in the state. During this round, special attention has been paid to high-risk areas such as slums, isolated hutments, brick kilns, floating or migrating population and construction sites so that no child is left uncovered in these areas.
{{/usCountry}}The activity was preceded by undertaking an awareness campaign. Nearly 26 lakh children are to be covered during this campaign in the state. During this round, special attention has been paid to high-risk areas such as slums, isolated hutments, brick kilns, floating or migrating population and construction sites so that no child is left uncovered in these areas.
{{/usCountry}}Nearly 1,000 mobile teams are also working to cover all children in underserved and poorly approachable areas.
The spokesperson said that wherever pockets of children remain un-immunised, the polio virus sustained survival and circulation. With every successive round of pulse polio immunisation, the areas of polio virus circulation get reduced.