1,58,850 children to be covered in Tuticorin in pulse polio programme

The Collector, R. Palaniyandi, exhorted parents to bring their children in the age group of zero to five years to booths for giving oral polio vaccine on January 7.

The drops would be administered to 1,58,850 children in the district through 1,062 booths set up in Tuticorin and Kovilpatti health unit districts.

The population in transit would be covered through the `additional booths' established at major bus stands and railway stations and at places of tourism importance such as Tiruchendur, Kazhugamalai and Panchalankurichi.

A total of 5,000 volunteers comprising doctors from the 47 Primary Health Centres and the Tuticorin Medical College and Hospital, officials from different departments, anganwadi staff, village health nurses and sector health nurses would be deployed to administer the drops.

Aliyar Liaquat Ali, Deputy Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, said no polio case was reported in the district since the detection of two cases (one at Thalamuthu Nagar and another at Threspuram) during 1998. "Even there was no incidence of poliomyelitis in the State during 2005 and 2006, after the last case was reported at M.G.R. Nagar in Tirunelveli in 2004."

Dr. Ali said a total of 1,814 cases were reported across the world during 2006 of which 624 cases were from our nation. Of the 624 cases, 509 cases were registered in Uttar Pradesh followed by 52 in Bihar, 18 in Haryana, 13 in Uttaranchal, five in Maharashtra, eight in Punjab, six in Delhi, three each in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, two in Assam and one each in Chandigarh, Himachal Pradsh, Jharkand, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir," he added.

Source: Hindu