Politics shadow over polio drive

KOLKATA: Polio immunisation may lose out to politics this Sunday.
Given a choice between pulse polio and electoral compulsions, politicians seem to have opted for playing safe.
Officials claim that the turnout this time may be the worst, compared to previous campaigns, and squarely blame politicians for the imminent debacle.
“They are just not focusing on pulse polio.As the campaign needed to target a specific community, they refrained from doing so, fearing they might lose the election,� a senior official of the health department said.
“Panchayats and administration are in a soup. Only they can convince people about the need of administering polio drops,� he added.
Logistics remain a major problem. During earlier drives, the administration failed to maintain the cold chain — the chain of refrigerating equipment from the places where the vaccines are stored to the enduser. To rectify the situation, department officials were trained in the procedure. “This training would have been useful, but this time, there is lack of political will,� said another senior official.
Already, eight cases have been detected in the country in the past two months. Doctors say that this time of the year is extremely crucial. “The virus generally transmits during the summer and monsoon. Putting the right effort this time would have really helped,� said a doctor in the state family welfare department. In previous programmes, the chief minister and the health minister had taken personal initiative which helped the campaign. Even then, the coverage was limited to 97 per cent, with the remainder accounting for a staggering three lakh children. This time, the numbers of those not covered may be bigger, officials felt.
Officers apprehend the lag may cost the state dearly as it did in 2002. “The virus spread to 10 districts and the number of cases increased suddenly,� he said. The polio map in the state now encompasses 10 districts, some of which did not report any case in the past three years. Experts claimed this was more worrying than the absolute number of cases. Midnapore (west), Tamluk, Nadia, Hooghly, Howrah and Uttar Dinajpur did not report any polio case in past three years but have come back on the virus map.