The campaign that will cost around Rs 276,698,870, most of which will be borne by UNICEF, WHO and USAID, will be conducted through 39,907 centers across the country mobilizing 79,814 volunteers. [break]
"We had managed 83 percent coverage in the 11th campaign immunizing 4,147,817 children and want to go above 90 percent this time around," KB Chand, the chief of Expanded Program on Immunization, said during an advocacy meeting with political parties Friday.
Chand said there will be only one-day campaign this time around unlike the previous 11 where volunteers would go to each home the next day looking for those who missed the polio drops due to budgetary constraints owing to lesser financial grant from the donors due to global financial crisis. "But those who missed on the days of immunization can still be taken to the nearest health center across the country and given their doses," Chand added.
Director of Child Health Division Dr RP Biccha said though polio had been almost eradicated in Nepal around 2004 a few cases appeared in the Tarai districts through 2005-2008 due to porous border with India. He, however, also reminded that no case was reported in the year 2009.
UNICEF Representative to Nepal Gillian Mellsop said that India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only countries in the world that have much to do to attain the global target of eradicating polio by the year 2012 and said that Nepal having open border with India should work on immunization seriously.
She also mentioned support provided by all political parties in all types of immunization campaigns in the past and even during the armed conflict and urged the parties to continue to do so.
Director General of the Department of Health Services Dr Yasovardhan Pradhan said that efficacy of the polio vaccine is just around 80% and therefore urged everyone to take their children under the age of five years for polio drops even if they have received the drops previously.
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