Medical officers apprised of Pulse Polio

Tribune News Service

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Jammu, January 10

A district-level workshop on Intensified Pulse Polio Immunisation (IPPI) was organised under the National Polio Surveillance Project by the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) country office for India at Government Hospital, Gandhi Nagar, here today.

The workshop was chaired by Baldev Raj Sharma, Director, Family Welfare and Immunisation and co-chaired by Robinder Khajuria, Chief Medical Officer, Jammu.

Presentations on the IPPI were given by Ravinder Pal Singh, surveillance medical officer, WHO, J&K. Participants of the workshop included block medical officers of all health blocks in the Jammu district along with medical officers from rural as well as urban areas.

It was informed that pulse polio immunisation, in addition to routine polio immunisation, was first started in 1995. Every child below three years of age was given two doses of oral polio drops with a month’s gap. In order to accelerate the pace of polio eradication, the target age was increased to cover children below five years of age from 1996. The modified IPPI strategy included vaccination of children through fixed booth approach on the first day followed by extensive house-to-house search for missed children for vaccination. During these years, new strategies were introduced to cover endemic states and the results were encouraging.