Over 17 lakh children administered polio vaccine in J-K

On the first day of the Pulse Polio Immunization Programme, over 17 lakh children in the age bracket of 0-5 years were administered oral polio vaccine throughout Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, an official spokesman said. In the Kashmir division, 9,48,568 children were vaccinated against the crippling disease which amounted to 89 percent of the total target, he said.

He said as many as 7,58,741 children were given polio drops amounting to 83 percent of the total target children in the Jammu division. Respective divisional and district administrations have made elaborate arrangements to cover all the children in the age group of 0-5 years, the spokesman said.

He said health workers and volunteers will carry out door-to-door visits in their allotted areas to ensure no child is left out of the vaccination program. Earlier during the day, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, who inaugurated the National Immunisation Day at Gandhi Nagar Hospital here, urged all the officers and officials to continue working hard as the neighboring countries still have wild polio cases.

"We should mobilize all the resources to keep polio at bay and continue to participate in the pulse polio immunization campaigns so that the immunity of our children remains high," he said. The minister said on March 27, 2014, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared India a polio-free country.