3 lakh children to be covered in Dec

The decision was taken on Monday in an emergency meeting of health officials with the World Health Organisation (WHO) representative in the state.

The government has,however,failed to reach a consensus on the need to give special coverage to the migrant population,mostly from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar,under the special round of immunisation apart from the two national immunisation days.

Though the government officials accept that there is a large-scale migration of labour to Himachal from the endemic states of UP and Bihar,there has been no database so far of the approximate number of the floating population of children in the age group eligible for immunisation.

With the latest case detected in Solan,Himachal sees the return of polio after three years. The two-and-a-half-year-old son of a migrant labour from Uttar Pradesh has been tested positive with wild type-3 polio virus. The child has a past history of travel from Badaun,one of the high-risk districts of Uttar Pradesh.

Himachal Health Minister Rajiv Bindal said: “After the boy developed some problems,he was taken to a private clinic instead of the nearby Panjara Public Health Centre. It is learnt that his parents had missed out on the polio camps.”

Stool samples of people from the slum where this migrant family is staying have been collected and sent to the Central research Institute,Kasauli.

Health Director Dr Nagesh Sharma said: “In the proposed special round,the focus will be on the settlements of migrant population around industrial areas. This round is coinciding with a similar immunisation round in the neighbouring Punjab and Chandigarh.”

Health officials are,meanwhile,trying to trace the immunisation history of the child.

Dr G P Dwivedi,the WHO representative for polio in Himachal,said besides immunisation through polio booths,mobile teams of health workers would conduct a door-to-door survey to see if any child has been left out.