Telangana launches Pulse Polio drive for 40.9 lakh children

Telangana launched a large-scale Pulse Polio vaccination campaign this weekend, aiming to immunize over 40.97 lakh children under the age of five across the state. The initiative, part of a nationwide National Immunisation Day program, began with parents queuing at designated health booths on Saturday, June 27.

The campaign's state-level launch was held at the Urban Primary Health Centre in Hyderabad's Borabanda area, where Health Minister C. Damodar Raja Narasimha administered the first doses of the bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV) on Saturday morning. The minister interacted with parents and health workers, urging continued vigilance. He stated that despite the absence of polio cases in Telangana for over a decade, precautions remain essential to maintain that status and called on all parents to ensure their children are vaccinated.

To implement the program, health authorities have established 22,979 fixed vaccination booths across the state. The campaign follows a three-day structure: booth-based vaccinations were followed by house-to-house visits on Sunday and Monday to reach children who may have been missed. Due to their large urban populations, the districts of...