Govt targets migratory population from neighbouring countries to prevent polio re-emergence

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is now targeting mobile and migratory population from neighbouring countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan, to prevent the re-emergence of polio virus in the India.

According to a report by Mint, the process of identifying the children living with mobile and migratory families has already begun.

So far, the government has been administering polio doses to children below age of five through door-to-door Pulse Polio programme.

"We are aggressively targeting the mobile and migratory children population in India. In the Pulse Polio Campaign, our workers were reaching out to children for immunisation. But, for total population coverage, we cannot miss homeless children. We have identified over 40,000 habitats so far in past six months," Pradeep Haldar, Deputy Commissioner of the health ministry said.

The government is continuing the Pulse Polio campaign as a preventive measure as there are chances of people moving from the neighbouring countries to India.

The government has prepared a database of children living near brick kilns, streets, tent houses and nomad families, according to the report.

Even though polio was officially eradicated from India, the government is planning to run micro plans for polio as cases are still being reported from neighbouring countries.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least eleven cases have been registered in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2018, the report adds.