The Government today made a sound alert against Polio epidemic reportedly spotted in Amberpet Nala and directed the official machinery to take up awareness drive followed by vaccination to six weeks to 3 years old children. Taking cue from Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, Health Minister Dr C Lakhsma Reddy directed top officials of the health department principal secretary, Rajeshwar Tiwari and the officials to take up the vaccination drive for 3 lakh children for week days from June 20 to 26 across the state and 12 mandals in Hyderabad.
As per survey line study conducted on 30 samples the officials identified the virus as Vaccinated derived Polio virus type-2 and efforts are on to eradicate it. He said that there is no need of panic as the government geared up to tackle the problem. The Health Minister also maintained that besides WHO and Unicef teams, special medical and voluntary organization teams are coordinating to fight the virus. A focus is on the PHCs near the Amberpet Nala area and it was decided to vaccinate about 2,81,812 children who are suspected to have the virus in 12 locations. Lakshma Reddy cautioned that the parents should avoid negligence and instead vaccinate their children to eradicate polio and get medicines free of cost. (NSS)