Mangaluru, February 23: Second phase of pulse polio programme was inaugurated at Lady Goschen hospital here on Sunday, February 22nd.
District in-charge minister B Ramanath Rai along with health and family welfare minister U T Khadar inaugurated the programme at Lady Goschen Hospital, in Mangaluru.
U T Khadar addressing the media said, eradication of polio from Dakshina Kannada as well as from India is our main goal.
He informed that, 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. Pulse polio vaccinations are being administered to a total of 75 lakh children below five years.
He further said, Gulbarga, Raichur, Ballari, Koppal, Mangaluru and Bengaluru have been selected and will be given first preference by immunizing everyone, under a health mission known as ‘Mission Indradhanush’ which was introduced by the union government of India. This mission in Karnataka, it will be launched in March 2015. Mission Indradhanush will cover most of the migrants who work in construction sites. The mission aims to cover all those children who are not vaccinated or are partially vaccinated against seven preventable diseases.
Our main motto is to immunize all the districts in Karnataka. But there are a few districts with less children immunized, which will be covered first. The programme is funded by the central and as well as the state governments, he said.
H1N1 (swine flu):
Speaking on swine flu Khadar said, H1N1 is a seasonal disease. Try to take precautions to keep your immunity at a good level. It is better to get vaccinated sooner. The vaccination for the H1N1 disease takes 21 days to work hence the patient has to take medicines.
In order to spread awareness about this disease, this year onwards, every November and December will be observed as ‘Immunity Awareness H1N1 awareness’ programme months. Intention of this programme is to educate that H1N1 can affect a individual anytime which should not be neglected.
ZP CEO Tulasi Maddineni, Deputy Mayor Kavita, Dr Rajarajeshwari, Dr Shakunthala, former corporator Padmanabha Amin, Gokul Das Nayak, T K Sudhir, were present among others.
