Rotarians lend support to polio vaccination drive
More than 250 foreign Rotarians in India came out in support of National Immunisation Day and targeted more than 172 million children for vaccination against polio. Across the country, about 7,09,000 booths helped administer the polio vaccine and those who missed it, will be followed up the next day in the house-to-house immunisation effort — a five-day activity. Health workers in many parts of the country were assisted by Indian and foreign Rotarians.
The team in Kolkata will also visit India’s last polio surviving child — Rukhsar Khatoon.
Deepak Kapur, chairman, Rotary International’s India National PolioPlus Committee said, “Our Rotarian brothers and sisters from abroad visit India every year at their own expense and actively participate in the polio eradication campaign in the country,” adding, “Their countries eliminated polio long ago, but their presence here in our fight to end polio gives the local Rotarians and health workers the motivation and the much needed vigour to carry forth with the campaign till eradication is achieved,” he added.
The number of polio cases in India saw a steep fall with no cases reported this year and the last, and only one reported in 2011 from West Bengal. “The last two years have been a tremendous leap for India and we hope we achieve the target in 2014 — three years without a case of polio for regional polio-free certification” said Mr Kapur.
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