Polio campaign extended by two days in Kashmir

Jammu, Jan 20: The Jammu and Kashmir government on Sunday said the pulse polio immunization campaign has been extended by two more days to cover nearly two million children.

Shabir Ahmad Khan, minister of state for health, said the state has not recorded a single polio case since 2010 thanks to the pulse polio immunization programme.

No polio case has been reported since January 2011 in the country because of which the World Health Organization (WHO) has removed India from the list of polio endemic countries, he said.

He said the immunization campaign that began in the state Sunday will continue for another two days to ensure that nearly two million children are administered pulse polio drops.

As many as 45,370 trained medical staff have been deployed and 11,477 pulse polio administration centres established across the state in the first phase of the campaign, he said.

For children who might have been left out in the first phase, trained medical staff would go house to house.

Special focus would be on children living with parents at construction sites, brick kilns, slums and other such medically sensitive locations, he said.