24m children to be given polio vaccine on Oct 27, Dec 8

FE Team | Published: October 26, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Some 24 million children under five will be given polio vaccine tomorrow (Saturday) and on December 8 across the country in the first and second rounds of the 16th National Immunisation Day (NID) for eradicating residual Polio-myelitis, reports UNB.
Health Adviser ASM Matiur Rahman Thursday urged the people to take their under-five children to the vaccination centres to make the drive against the deadly disease a success.
"Again and again the children should be fed on the polio vaccine, as it has no side effect", he said, while addressing the inaugural ceremony of the 16th NID-2007 as the chief guest.
Secretary of Health and Family Planning Ministry AKM Jafarullah Khan attended the function as the special guest. Director General of Health Services Dr Md Shahjahan Biswas presided over the opening ceremony.
Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI), Directorate General of Health Services, and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare jointly organised the function at the EPI Bhaban in the city.
AKM Jafarullah Khan said, according to the decision of the National Steering Committee on Polio Eradication and Measles Control (NSC-PE and MC), in both rounds of the 16th NID, two drops of Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) would be given to all under-five children.
"In the first round, a high-potency vitamin-A capsule will be administered to the children aged 1-5, and Albandazole tablet will be given to 2-5-year-olds in the second round," he said.
He said, the children would be given OPV through around 1,40,000 vaccination centres where some 0.6 million volunteers would be engaged along with 50,000 workers from Health and Family Planning Department for successful implementation of the colossal activity.
Programme manager, Child Health and LCC, DGHS, Dr Md Abdul Quader Mian presented a keynote paper titled 'Overview of Polio Eradication: Global, Regional and in Country', where he said, only four countries - Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan - are polio-endemic with some 564 cases.
UNICEF Country Represen-tative in Bangladesh Louis George Arsanault, government officials, autonomous bodies, NGOs, donors and development partners were also present on the occasion.