A worker administers polio drops to a child in Patna on Wednesday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Sept. 22: The State Health Society, Bihar, targets to immunise more than 1.86 crore children in the five-day anti-polio drive, which started on September 19.

State programme officer (immunisation) Dr Gopal Krishan told The Telegraph: “The state government is committed to eradicate polio from Bihar as a part of anti-polio drive started by State Health Society, Bihar along with various agencies. The drive aims to immunise more than 1.86 crore children.”

Krishan further said that under the National Polio Surveillance Project, State Health Society, Bihar has been working for the eradication of polio from the state. “The state government’s initiative has resulted in a drastic fall in the number of polio cases in the state compared to last year. Last year, there were around 72 cases of polio which has reduced to eight cases this year, which includes two cases of P1 and six cases of P3,” added Krishan.

The P1 case, detected under Dhaka block in East Champaran district is the first case in the state and the 11th in the country of P1 polio. The P1 case was detected in a child from a family of farm labourers along the India-Nepal border.

During the five-day campaign, workers engaged in polio vaccination will visit 1.51 crore houses to administer the anti-polio dose to children up to the age of five. Moreover, in 35 districts of the state, the social mobilisation network has erected polio stalls at major points such as railway stations, bus stands, roundabouts and others.

The state health department has constituted 7,200 transit teams to vaccinate children inside trains on important train routes between Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Krishan also said that for house-to-house polio campaign and transit teams, the state government has raised a force of 1.09 lakh persons. Moreover, for complete eradication of the polio from the state, state heath department officials of deputy director rank will monitor the situation is various blocks falling under 35 districts.

State Health Society, Bihar, has selected 41 blocks considered to be the most polio-sensitive. Most of these are spread across the Kosi region and areas around the Bihar-Nepal border.

Krishan added that the slide in polio cases this year is attributed to the introduction of bivalent vaccination from January this year, which helps fight both P1 and P3 polio viruses. The P2 polio virus was totally eradicated from the state in 2006.

Moreover, the state government also carried out polio vaccination at the recently concluded month-long Shravani Mela, where thousands of people congregated.

The polio transit teams had covered major transit sites en route to the mela in Bhagalpur, Banka, and Munger districts for the period.