The government of Puducherry appreciated the parents who got their children immunized for the second phase of polio immunization across the Union Territory on Sunday.

Speaking on this, Dr Dilip Kumar Baliga, Director of Health and Family Welfare Services said that for the purpose of immunization programme, the officials including paramedics, supervisors and Aanganwari workers were deployed in various centres. He said that all efforts to ensure that the immunisation drive was conducted smoothly.

The Director said that the pulse polio programme has remained a successful programme for eradicating polio disease among the children in the UT. Baliga also made it clear that the department has not received any report regarding any case of polio from the UT so far.

The administration had set up over 400 booths for the purpose. Mobile teams were deployed at the municipal bus terminals, near temples, railway stations and also at the border points for providing polio vaccine. These booths started working from early seven in the morning. Other officers of the Health Department were also present on the occasion. He further said that by noon, nearly 50 per cent of the children n the rural areas were immunized.

It may be recalled that between August and November last year, nearly 8 cases of Wild Polio Virus (WPV) were detected in the country. The government, therefore had started to organize a nationwide polio immunization programme for this purpose. Though the country has imitated steps to counter this problem since 1996, but the disease still existed.

As per a report by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, India is among those four countries in the world where polio is endemic. It says that Nigeria reported 728 polio cases 2008, with India at second place, followed by Pakistan (81) and Afghanistan (22).