E Arun
Port Blair, Jan 16: An Advocacy workshop for media persons on Pulse Polio Immunization was organised by the State Health Education Bureau at Ayush Hospital today.
Addressing the gathering Dr. Avijit Ray, Deputy Director (Health) of Directorate of Health Services, said that the Medical world is expecting that by 2014 India will be getting Polio- Free status.
“Since last four years all the stool samples of Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) cases from these islands have shown negative results and according to norms if the AFP samples of any state show negative result for four continuous years then the area is declared as polio-free zone,” Deputy Director (Health) of Directorate of Health Services Dr Avijit Roy told media today.
The Dy. Director added that this year the Health Department of Andaman and Nicobar Administration has send only one samples of stool and it was given negative results. Since last nine years, we haven’t detected any Polio cases in these islands.” Dr. Avijit Roy said. The AFP samples are being sent under the National Polio Surveillance Project, which is a collaborative project of Govt, of India & the World Health Organization! The goal is to ensure that no child will ever again suffer from the crippling effects of polio in entire world.
Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus poliovirus. It invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a matter
of hours. It can strike at any age, but affects mainly children under three, Polio is mainly passed through person-to- person (i.e., feco-oral) contact, and infects persons who do not have immunity against the disease. There is no cure for polio, but the disease can be prevented by immunization with polio vaccine. Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) was developed in 1961 by Dr Albert Sabin; OPV is a highly effective, safe and inexpensive vaccine, and has been used in all countries of the world to achieve polio eradication.
“The main aim of the conference was to spread awareness about the Pulse Polio Immunization programme though media as it plays very important role.” Dr Tulsidasan said.
The Health Department of Andaman and Nicobar Islands will be launching its first round of Polio immunization Programme on 20th January 2013 and the second round will be held on 24th February 2013. But, uncontrolled influx of population in these remote islands has put more challenges for the local health department, which is also conducting Pulse Polio Immunization Programme in all the local ports. “Once we get polio-free status there are chances that we are asked to follow some strict guidelines by WHO for some years to maintain the status. In any case we are ready for it,” Dr Avijit Roy added.
Leave a Reply