Polio campaign on the threshold of the state begins today | Hyderabad News

HYDERABAD: Stung by contaminated vaccines administered to many children, state health department to launch door-to-door campaign against polio for IPV doses to children under 2.5 from Monday.

"Our health officials have been preparing a list of beneficiaries for two weeks. Any child under 2.5 years old who has not been immunized with IPV will be identified and administered at doses. Field records maintained by nurse midwives in each district are used for this purpose. The campaign begins on October 22, "said Dr. G Srinivasa Rao, director of public health and family welfare in the government of Telangana.

Health authorities decided on the campaign following a communication from the Center enjoining the state government to administer the anti-IPV vaccine in all districts. The contaminated polio vaccine BoPV (bivalent oral poliomyelitis vaccine) manufactured by Biomed has also been administered in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, with the exception of Telangana.

The type 2 poliomyelitis virus, which was to be completely eradicated, is currently circulating in the environment. In 2016, trivalent oral polio vaccine was adopted in the bivalent form of oral polio vaccine (which does not prevent wild poliomyelitis), as well as in 155 other countries of the world, following a WHO guideline World Health Organization (WHO). WHO).

While the Center had recommended covering children up to the age of 2, the state health department aims to cover children up to the age of 2.5 years in the countryside. At the same time, about 13 lakh bivalent lava vaccines have been recalled in several districts, the authorities said. "The center has also replaced them with new doses of OPV for the campaign. We have adequate doses in stock, "added the manager.