Pics: Meryick D'Silva
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (MD)

Mangaluru, Feb 22: The second phase of pulse polio programme was inaugurated at Lady Goschen hospital here on Sunday, February 22 by district incharge minister B Ramanath Rai along with minister for health and family welfare U T Khadar at Lady Goschen Hospital, Mangaluru.

Addressing the media U T Khadar said, "Our main intention is to eradicate polio from Dakshina Kannada as well as from India. In Karnataka, 32,628 booths have been opened and 51,558 teams, 1,03,440 volunteers, 6,523 supervisors, 923 mobile vehicles and 2,162 transit teams are functioning today for pulse polio programme. A total of 75 lac children below the age of five are being administered pulse polio vaccination."

Mission Indradhanush

He further added, "We will be organizing a new programme to ensure proper immunization in society in the coming days. Every year, 2.5 crore children are born in India and 11 lac in Karnataka. Even today, 35% of them are left out of the Universal Immunization Programme which was started by Rajiv Gandhi. By mapping and taking Universal Immunization Programme's details into consideration we will see in which places of Karnataka there are less counts and give first preference to those places and immunize those who are left out. Gulbarga, Raichur, Ballari, Koppal, Mangaluru and Bangaluru have been selected and will be given first preference by immunizing everyone, under a health mission known as 'Mission Indradhanush' which was launched by the union government of India. In Karnataka, it will be launched in March 2015.

"The mission will aim to cover all those children who are not vaccinated or are partially vaccinated against seven preventable diseases which include diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis B. This programme will be held in the last weeks of March, April, May and June. Mission Indradhanush will cover most of the migrants who work in construction sites. The contractor has to look after their health needs. We will provide all the facilities to the contractors. It is the primary responsibility of contractor to get the migrants checked whenever necessary. It will be a free service."

He further said, "We will make anganwadis as survey centres where we will call parents and provide vaccinations to their kids. It is a national-level project. Our main aim is to immunize all the districts in Karnataka. But there are a few districts with less children immunized and we will cover them first. The programme is funded by the central and as well as the state governments," he said.

Swine Flu

Regarding H1N1 (swine flu) Khadar said, "H1N1 was a seasonal disease, but now it has changed. To spread awareness regarding this disease, from this year, every November and December will be observed as 'Immunity Awareness H1N1 awareness' programme months. Intention of this programme is to inform that H1N1 can affect a person anytime and no one should neglect it. Try to take precautions to keep your immunity at a good level. The vaccination for the H1N1 disease takes 21 days to work. It is better to take the vaccination as early as possible. The last death from H1N1 in the state was on February 18. Those who take the vaccination have to take the medicines also because the vaccination works 21 days later."

Deputy mayor Kavita, Dr Shakunthala, Dr Rajarajeshwari, former corporator Padmanabha Amin, T K Sudhir, Gokul Das Nayak, Tulsi Maddineni and others were also present.